For the most part, none of us can predict when we might become a parent. We can do our best to make it happen – if it’s what we want – but life has ever been, and will always be, unpredictable.

Some women become mothers young, bringing new life into the world while they’re still in their teens. Others fall pregnant later on in their own lives. Others, sadly, face problems that mean they might never get to deliver a baby of their own blood.

Of course, there is no right or wrong way. All babies should be celebrated, just as all mothers should be championed for the awe-inspiring journey they and their bodies go through in the process of creating another human being.

Some women, though, like Maria Carmen del Bousada, who lived in Cadiz, Spain, face scorn, sometimes even oppression, for their decisions concerning