I remember life before babies. There were spontaneous drinks on Thursday nights, house parties on a Friday, Saturdays spent in pubs around London and hungover brunches on Sunday mornings. We’d head for cheap pints after work to plan hangouts at the weekend, able to have long, uninterrupted conversations lounging around each other’s houses.

But as the years went by, things started to change. Work got busier, boyfriends and girlfriends were introduced into the friendship group and the wedding invites started to roll in. As we all struggled with the rising cost of London renting, people started to save up to buy houses on the outskirts of the city or even leave altogether. Spur of the moment frivolity turned into plans set months in advance that required Travelodge bookings. And then there were the kids.

It started slowly. A couple who had been together since their teens were first with a beautiful baby boy. Then after-work drinks with colleagues started to fizzle out as everyone had to get home for their children. My best friend, who lives over three hours away, told me she was pregnant over FaceTime – something she repeated 14 months later. My neighbours had a second boy and I watched close friends who had struggled to conceive joyfully finally show me those double lines on a pregnancy test.

“Everyone around me is having babies – I feel like I’ve lost the friendships I once had”