GRANDMOTHER Debbie Amos has just become a mum again...13 years after being sterilised.

The shocked 43-year-old didn’t realise she was expecting her fourth child until she was six months pregnant.

Mrs Amos, of Sycamore Road, Greenstead, Colchester, and husband, Melvyn, 57, conceived in the past with the help of a fertility drug, because she had had irregular periods.

She said: “At the end of July, I started feeling tired and then felt movements in my stomach.

“I did a pregnancy test, which was positive. I visited the doctor, who thought I was about 18 weeks pregnant.”

A scan revealed she was actually 23 weeks pregnant.

Mrs Amos, who works for Boots as a pharmacy assistant, continued: “I think I cried for a week. I thought I’d been doubly sterilised and I had had no symptoms, such as sickness, which I did with my other children.

“I never really had periods. They were very irregular, so I didn’t give it any thought that I had missed one until I felt the movement.”

Baby Connor arrived at Colchester General Hospital on Thursday, weighing 8lb 8ozs.

Mrs Amos said: “We were very relieved he is fit and healthy. I didn’t have any tests as I didn’t know I was pregnant until so late on and there were obviously added risks because of my age.”

Doctors gave Mrs Amos the drug Clomid to speed up ovulation when she was 19 and as a result, she conceived daughter, Kerri, now 24.

Even with fertility treatment, it took two years for her to fall pregnant with her first son, Glen, who is now 19, and after that the couple decided to call it quits.

She said: “They said I wouldn’t fall pregnant without taking Clomid, so I didn’t take any precautions because I was off the drug. Then I fell pregnant with Rebecca.”

Not wanting to take any chances, three years after Rebecca, was born, 16 years ago, Mrs Amos was sterilised at Colchester General Hospital.

The couple, grandparents to Kerri’s children, Callum, three, and ten-month-old Courtney, considered taking legal action against the hospital but ruled it out because they had been warned sterilisation might only be 99 per cent effective.

Mrs Amos said: “My doctor said maybe the tube had grown back, but we don’t know.

“My husband was thinking about retiring from his job as a transport manager when he was 60 but that won’t be happening now.

“If you think about the fact I needed fertility treatment for the other two, then the odds of me having Connor are just huge.

“Obviously, I would not be without him for anything now, but it has been a massive shock.

“Maybe he was just meant to be here.”