I became a mother at 14 – Lady opens up

Shannon was 14 and her boyfriend Ethan 17 when she became pregnant with their son, Harvey, who is now two.

“Being a parent is one of the loneliest places I’ve been. You lose a lot of your friends, they don’t want to focus on this little baby.

“You don’t want people to see that you’re struggling and get the impression that you’re a bad mum because you’re struggling. It’s one of those things you keep in.”

She has had negative experiences due to her age, including a nurse who dismissed her when she had stomach pains a few weeks before her due date.

“I remember her saying to me, ‘Oh you wouldn’t know what labour feels like, you’re too young.'”

She was sent home but returned on the advice of a midwife three days later.

“I had a scan and it turned out that I was right all along, my waters had broken, I didn’t know that they had. He had been in my stomach for three days without any water.”

Despite the difficulties, Shannon enjoys being a mum.

“Before I had Harvey, I didn’t know where my life was going, now I have so much of a purpose, I feel like he has helped me a lot, to know where I want to go, where I want to be and what I want out of life.”