AN Oxfordshire woman who suffered eight miscarriages has spoken of the joy of celebrating the first Christmas with her new baby.

Sarah Whitman, 37, and her husband Martin, 38, never gave up hope of having a child despite 15 years of heartbreak. The couple, of Morris Drive, Banbury, started trying for a baby in 1991 - two years after they married - and conceived within a couple of months.

But Mrs Whitman lost the child after 12 weeks - the start of a devastating pattern that repeated itself seven more times.

After two more miscarriages, the couple feared something must be dreadfully wrong.

Mrs Whitman said: "I started to push to go to the hospital and get some tests done.

"We had every test under the sun but nothing was found. I was relieved but apprehensive about trying again."

But a fourth miscarriage on holiday in Florida prompted Mrs Whitman to seek specialist help at London's St Mary's Hospital, where she was diagnosed with anti-phospholipid - a condition where the body's immune system thinks the foetus is a foreign body and tries to expel it by clotting the blood.

She said: "It was a relief really. The treatment was quite effective with low dose aspirin daily to thin the blood.

"I fell pregnant again in September 1999. We were given about a 70 per cent success rate - before my chances were about nil.

"As soon as we found out I was pregnant I made weekly trips up to London to be shown how to have the medication and make the injections daily.

"But we lost that as well after about nine weeks. It was awful.

"The doctors said try again but your chances are getting slimmer and slimmer. It was quite devastating."

The couple suffered three more miscarriages and talked about adoption before deciding to have one last go at trying for a baby - and little Maya was born last January.

Mrs Whitman, who works at Brady Corporation in Banbury, said: "I did have a different feeling. Straight away I felt a bit more positive. We could not quite believe it. I never really relaxed at all.

"Every day was difficult. It was a real struggle emotionally. It just seemed to take so long to get anywhere near when she could be born.

"At the time it seemed almost never-ending."

But Maya was born two weeks early at Banbury's Horton Hospital weighing a healthy 7lb 1oz - and Mrs Whitman was at last able to hold the baby she had tried so hard for.

She said: "It just felt right. We had waited so long for her. It was a fantastic feeling.

"I really could not wait for people to come and see us and see their reactions. It was a really amazing time. I never felt I wasn't meant to have children. I think that's what kept me going. Maya's just a success story.

"Christmas was really different from what we have had before.

"If you haven't got children, as you get older Christmas doesn't really mean that much - but when you have a child you bring back the magic of Christmas that you remember yourself."