'I didn't think I'd get to be a mum – now I have six kids'

After suffering a miscarriage, Karen Rodger could never have guessed she'd go on to have three sets of twins

- LUCY ROBINSON

Home is a very busy place for Karen Rodger and her husband Colin. The couple, who live in Renfrewshire, Scotland, are parents to six children. But despite the endless piles of laundry and washing up, they wouldn't change their hectic family set-up for the world.

"It's a very odd feeling if I'm ever in the house by myself," Karen says. "People would think it must be amazing, but I don't like it. It just feels a bit weird - no noise, stillness, the quietness.

"If I don't hear the rumble of the washing machine, I get anxious. We have a room dedicated to laundry and the industrial size washing machine is on all the time. It's a busy household but it's absolutely brilliant. I wouldn't have it any other way."

Karen always knew she wanted to have children, but sadly experienced a miscarriage shortly after getting married. She recalls thinking, "This is never going to happen, I won't get to be a mum."

However, she discovered a couple of months afterwards that she was pregnant again. She says, "I developed really bad morning sickness, which was horrendous. I was about seven weeks pregnant when I went for an early scan and I remember them saying, 'Everything's fine, there's the heartbeat. In fact, there are two heartbeats because you're having twins.'

"I turned to Colin and I just couldn't believe it, it was such a shock to the system. It was all very exciting though."

Little did she know that this was just the beginning and she would go on to defy odds of around one in 88,000 to give birth to three sets of non-identical twins – sons Lewis and Kyle, now 26, Finn and Jude, 23, and daughters Rowan and Isla, 11.

Four children under three