‘Infertile’ grandma Alison Dent learns her IBS is a baby

A 43-year-old grandmother who thought she couldn’t have children has described the moment her ‘IBS’ turned out to be a child as ‘incredible’.

Alison Dent, from Darlington, County Durham, was told she was infertile after an operation to remove part of her cervix resulted in her periods coming to a standstill.

But in October 2013, after 26 years of no periods, she learned her ‘tummy’ troubles were actually the result of a surprise pregnancy – with her little boy due in just eight weeks’ time. 

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Baby bump: Alison Dent was unaware she was expecting, after being told that her bloating was down to IBS

Alison with her son, Bobby Charles. The two-year-old was born just five months after his niece, Caseylee

Alison, who also has an older daughter, Kylie, had the ‘routine’ operation in her twenties to remove abnormal cervical cells. But her periods stopped completely, leaving Alison and her partner Robert facing a future without children of their own.

‘Our baby dream was over,’ recalled Alison, who is now 45. ‘I felt bad for Robert but we threw ourselves into bringing up Kylie.’

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Twenty years later, Alison learned she was going to become a grandmother when Kylie announced she was expecting a daughter of her own.

However just weeks later, Alison began experiencing ‘tummy trouble’ including pain and bloating.

Surprise! The baby scan from October 2013 which confirmed the news that Alison was heavily pregnant

Bobby Charles was born in December 2015, when Alison and her partner Robert were in their forties and fifties

Bundle of joy: But Alison described her ‘horror’ when a nurse first suggested her burgeoning bump was a baby

In March 2013, two months after her daughter’s pregnancy news, she was diagnosed with IBS. Her doctor prescribed her medication to ease her symptoms:.

‘But nothing worked,’ Alison recalled. ‘My belly continued to bloat and my ankles swelled and my breasts grew sore too.’

She even felt a ‘sort of fluttering movement’ inside her tummy which the doctor put down to trapped wind. ‘I was back and forth to the doctors when the medication didn’t seem to have any effect,’ Alison said.

Alison was 19 when she had her first daughter Kylie (pictured) and thought she couldn’t have anymore children

Growing family: Alison with her partner Robert (left) and Robert with Kylie as a baby (right)

‘Our baby dream was over’: Alison was in her early twenties when doctors wrongly told her she was ‘infertile’

In July 2013, Kylie gave birth to Caseylee, which Alison says was a ‘welcome distraction’ from her IBS woes. However, her belly was still swollen and she began to fear she may not be around to see her granddaughter grow up.

In October that year, she was rushed to hospital with abdominal pain – but to her surprise, the nurse took one look at her and said she’d need to be taken to the maternity ward.

‘A look of horror must have crossed my face but I tried to make light of it,’ Alison recalled. ‘I told her: “I’m a granny – and I haven’t had a period in 26 years. There’s no way I’m pregnant.”‘ 

A dad at 53: Robert was in his fifties when Bobby Charles was born, but Alison says they ‘couldn’t be happier’

Close bond: Bobby Charles (left) was born in December 2013 while his niece Caseylee is five months older

Bobby Charles is now two-and-a-half years old, with mum Alison calling his arrival an ‘incredible surprise’

After a series of scans and a procedure where a camera was fed down Alison’s throat, a doctor delivered the news she’d been dreading: he believed it was a cyst.

‘I was terrified when I went home that night and began to fear the worst,’ Alison said. ‘Doctors couldn’t confirm it wasn’t cancerous.’

The next day she returned for a scan, and was shocked when the nurse told her: ‘It’s not a cyst… it’s a baby.’

‘How could I be pregnant? It didn’t make sense,’ said Alison, who was convinced doctors had got the scan results mixed up. 

But the nurse was adamant; she was expecting a little boy, and he was due in eight weeks’ time.

Proud auntie: Kylie with her daughter Caseylee (left) and Bobby Charles (right), who were born months apart 

Happy families: Kylie (left) and Robert (right) enjoy some bonding time with Bobby Charles and Caseylee

Alison’s daughter Kylie and partner Robert. They became parents within six months of each other in 2013

‘I was stunned then,’ said Alison. ‘I was 32 weeks pregnant and I’d had no idea.’ She called Robert, then aged 53,who initially thought she must be joking. 

‘The pair of us were in a daze for days as the news slowly sunk in,’ Alison recalled. ‘Of course it was a relief to know it wasn’t something more sinister, but the last thing I’d been expecting was a baby.’

Alison’s ‘incredible surprise’, Bobby Charles, was born in December 2013 – five months after her granddaughter arrived.

‘After everything I’d been through, I’d become a gran and a mum in the space of a few months,’ she said.

‘Now, I’ve never been happier. I thought I was dying – instead, I got this little cutie.’