After eight years of heartache a woman who lost seven babies while trying to start a family with her husband has finally given birth to a healthy little boy.

Sam Bourner didn’t realise how much she wanted children until she met David 12 years ago but now she describes two-month-old Noel as the miracle she was never sure she would have.

The 33-year-old said: “It’s been a long time coming but nothing prepares you for being a mum. It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be and I’m always tired but it’s really exciting, watching every stage he goes through. Just seeing him every day is amazing.

“I never felt safe during the pregnancy. There is no safe. Everyone was getting really excited but right up until the point I was holding him I thought it was going to go wrong.

“Noel had a personality pretty much straight away. He likes lots and lots of cuddles and attention and doesn’t like going down in his bed.

“Noel had a personality pretty much straight away. He likes lots and lots of cuddles and attention and doesn’t like going down in his bed"- Sam

"He can be fast asleep in your arms and as soon as you put him down he’s wide awake. He also loves being in the bath.”

The couple married in 2008 and started trying straight away with Sam even setting up a vintage craft company in the back garden of their home in Warehorne Road, Hamstreet, so she could work from home while raising a family.

It took them two years to get pregnant but at just under 22 weeks they lost their first child.

They named their unborn son Archie after Sam’s grandad.

Almost a decade of torture followed as Sam and David lost another five babies while friends and relatives seemed to be starting families all around them like it was the easiest thing in the world.

Sam admits that with every announcement of a new arrival, although delighted for the parents, she became more and more depressed.

But in March last year, after taking an 18-month break to let her body heal, Sam fell pregnant with Noel.

When she was 14 weeks pregnant doctors at St Mary’s Hospital in London inserted a cervical suture to reduce the chance of her miscarrying.

She changed her diet and took supplements and a team of doctors made it their mission to make the Bourners’ wish come true.

“Noel was always on one side of my tummy to begin with but when his twin died he moved over to where they had been. I think he was looking for him or her" - Sam

On December 3 last year, Sam and David got their miracle when Noel Arthur Paul came into the world weighing a healthy 5lb 14oz, despite being four weeks early.

But even on the day her baby was born, Sam feared she would lose him.

She woke that morning to discover she had been bleeding overnight and dialled 999 in tears, telling the operator she thought she had lost another baby.

Noel was delivered by emergency caesarean and rushed away by staff but five minutes later he was back in his mum’s arms feeding.

Sam said waiting for Noel’s first cry “felt like it took forever” but when she heard it, after what was actually only a few seconds, it sounded “amazing”.

Tragically, Noel had a twin who died in the womb at nine weeks but Sam believes the second sibling, whose gender they will never know, may actually have helped her little boy survive.

Despite being overjoyed at finally becoming parents, Sam and David say they will not being trying for a second child.

“Noel was always on one side of my tummy to begin with but when his twin died he moved over to where they had been,” she said. “I think he was looking for him or her. The sibling was a vanishing twin, I never miscarried, it was reabsorbed into the womb.

"It puts a strain on your body and doctors have said it might be dangerous for me to have another child. We are over the moon with Noel, he really is a miracle and I adore him” - Sam

“The second twin meant there were extra hormones from that brief little life to help keep the other going. I was on a different diet because I had gestational diabetes and I was taking clexane and aspirin.

“People keep saying now we’ve done it once we could do it again but I would have to have that exact combination of hormones, supplements and diet and even then it might not happen.

"It puts a strain on your body and doctors have said it might be dangerous for me to have another child. We are over the moon with Noel, he really is a miracle and I adore him.”

Sam intends to start running Say It With Sam again later this year, producing hand-painted signs from reclaimed wood as well as personalised bags and sacks, and has already made Noel a name sign for his bedroom.

The new mum admits she is a bit over-protective, refusing to let family or friends visit Noel if they have even the slightest cold, but says she will make sure their little boy grows up knowing how loved he is and how much his parents wanted him.

Sam says she would advise other couples in a similar situation to never stop trying.

“I’ve been on a couple of Facebook groups for people who are trying to conceive,” she said.

“January and February are particularly bad if people had aimed to be pregnant by Christmas and they are depressing months anyway.

"You can feel like it’s happening to other people but not to you. I would really recommend people badger their GPs to be referred somewhere like St Mary’s.

"The doctors there are great and I really don’t think Noel would be here if it wasn’t for them.

“I still can’t believe he’s real. So much can happen in a year. Never give up hope.”