Claire Sweeney's baby joy: I was so desperate I would've considered IVF, adoption or a donor

At eight months pregnant, Claire Sweeney positively radiates happiness and wellbeing.

Next month – after two traumatic years of fighting to become a mother – she will finally meet her “miracle” baby.

But the former Brookside star, who endured two heartbreaking miscarriages, reveals today how she would have considered every possible way to become a mum – IVF, adoption, even finding a sperm donor.

In the end, Claire, 43, got pregnant naturally, although she had already split up with fiancé Daniel Reilly, 29, before discovering she was expecting his baby.

But she says: “I had always wanted to be a mum and I would have stopped at nothing to have this baby.

“When I was going through that period of struggling to have a child, I really thought it was never going to happen. After the second miscarriage, it hit me really hard.

“If I hadn’t fallen pregnant when I did, even if I’d been on my own, I’d have considered going down the route of IVF, sperm banks or even adoption in the future. I just wanted to be a mum.”

The former Loose Women panellist is set to give birth to a boy by caesarean section in the last week of September.

Claire admits she had always taken it fable to have babies until she started trying at the age of 41.

or granted that she’d be

Proud parents: Claire and Daniel are no longer together but remain on good terms

“Until you try for a baby you don't realise how hard it is to have one,” she says. “I went through my life thinking it would be dead easy, but it's just not.

“I had a fertility test done a few years ago and the doctors told me I had the fertility of a 22-year-old, so I thought I had plenty of time.

"Then, after the second miscarriage, I had the tough realisation that it might not happen naturally, and it hit me really hard.

“I had achieved so much in my life but I couldn't achieve the one thing that lots of other women seemed to be able to do so easily. I had to really try not to beat myself up about it.

“I believe in fate and I knew fate would step in and take control of the situation.”

Fate did indeed step in – and just weeks after splitting from Daniel in February she discovered she was having his baby.

“God works in mysterious ways, and I fell pregnant naturally,” says Claire. “But if it hadn't have happened that way, it would have happened another way. I was always going to be a mum.”

The one-time Strictly Come Dancing contestant does confess, however, that adoption would be a last resort because she longs to carry on the Sweeney gene.

She says: “I believe people who adopt are truly fantastic but there is something about me wanting an extension of myself and wanting a little mini-me.”

And she says her whole family are over the moon about the imminent arrival – after an extremely difficult year. Her dad Ken, 74, has been seriously ill with lung cancer and she says she and her mum Kathy, 65, feared they would lose him.

“There have been times when we have both thought he might not make it to meet his grandson,” she says.

“But this week he went to the hospital and was told not to come back for three months.

“The birth is due just a couple of weeks before his birthday. What a great present.”

Rubbing her bump, Claire looks the picture of health, but she says she was initially nervous about exercising during pregnancy.

“You’re not really sure what you can and can’t do,” she says, revealing how she turned to Results with Bump – an online antenatal fitness platform.

“The team calmed my nerves and helped ease me into a workout routine which I ended up filming for their website.”

She says that having a healthy baby is now her priority – but she did reveal that her relationship with web marketing expert Daniel has grown much closer during her pregnancy.

“I didn’t know I was pregnant when I split from Daniel and I didn’t let my urge to be a mum taint how I saw the relationship,” she says.

“When we split, I was confident it wasn't my only chance to have a baby. That kind of thinking could keep you in a relationship, but I knew I could do it on my own.

“Yet I am so glad I am having his baby because he is a wonderful person and he has really looked after me and been so supportive through everything. I wouldn't say we are back in a relationship but we have become very, very close again.

“We are spending a lot of time together and we are both really happy to be having this baby together.

“The most important thing is to get this baby born healthy and happy, then we’ll see what happens naturally after that.

"I’m not ruling anything out. We didn’t split because of a big row or because either of us had done anything naughty. I was in London and he was in Liverpool and it was hard. We just thought the relationship had run its course.”

Claire will be having the baby in Liverpool, and she intends to stay there for the first six months to be close to Daniel and both their families.

But marriage is no longer an issue for the pair, who were engaged for a year before parting.

“I don’t have any anxiety about needing to get married any more,” says Claire. “If I don’t get married, that’s OK. I am going to be a mum and that is really important for me, but I would love to do it one day when the time is right.

“I did fear I would hold this baby and ask myself why I didn’t do it all much sooner so I could have more. But I have no regrets.

“There are stories that I am having this little one by IVF. That doesn't bother me because there is help out there for women to conceive now and that’s a good thing – it’s not something for anyone to be ashamed of.

"It just hasn’t been the case for me. If I need it in the future, I’ll take it.”

And she adds: “I just want to tell other women in their 40s not to give up hope. We tried and tried for this baby, then just when we didn’t expect it, it happened.

“There is always a way.”