Well, 66-year-old mum-to-be Elizabeth Adeney’s decision to have a child has certainly caused a storm.

For days the Press have been teetering on the edge of complaining about her decision without having the nerve to go for broke. They’ve portrayed Adeney as a lonely, albeit successful, businesswoman who obviously had the IVF treatment in the Ukraine for all the wrong reasons. She is a ‘desperate divorcee' whose ‘sad, solitary existence’ somehow casts her beyond the limits of justified motherhood.

What on earth could they be driving at? Nudge, nudge.

They even managed to track down her husband from 20-odd years previously for a few less than flattering comments.

Even the wishy-washy Church of England has gotten in on the act, too: “A child is a gift not a right. For those who have never received that gift we can well understand their desire to have children but it is always important to think in those circumstances about what is really in the child's best interests.”

(Like not existing at all, presumably ...).

But is that the measure we use for other pregnancies? Er, no. Some pregnancies are planned but many aren't. Some are used to prop up a failing marriage. Some are used to move a relationship on. Some are the result of Saturday night carelessness and one glass of wine too many. Some because it's just what people do, isn't it?

But all that's ok because, well, we're talking about real people. You know, people in their 20s to around the 50 mark. Not wrinklies, though, because that just disgusting.

Elizabeth Adeney, at an admittedly casual glance, looks in good nick to me and could easily pass for much younger than her years. She's in a secure position financially to make sure that the child gets the very best materially (yes, I know that's not the be all and end all but it is a factor). And she obviously wants the child. All pluses, you’d think.

She's probably in better health than some of the casualties you see prowling up and down our main thoroughfares, offspring in tow. They may be in their 20s, but florid of face, puffing fags and, well, obese, there's a good chance they'll be handing on to their little darlings a health/psychological timebomb at least the equal of anything the Suffolk businesswoman might do. Often they’re bringing up their kids in a bleak existence on income support. At least, Adeney can pay to raise her own child.

But you don't — quite rightly, may I add — see those younger mums dragooned for wanting/having kids.

The only negative the critics can really think of as regards Adeney is the shadow of the Grim Reaper. There’s a reasonable chance that she may not see the baby grow up to be a teenager.

But what's perfect in life? To quote the man, stuff happens. Tragically plenty of young parents die young. And consequently lots of elderly people through circumstances beyond their control end up raising children as their own — or at least taking the primary share of the child-rearing responsibilities.

Grandparents have to step in and provide the love and support a child needs and no one bats an eyelid. So really it's the actual pregnancy that seems to give some the heebie-jeebies.

Why? Because it's ‘not natural'. Well, tons of things are ‘NN' — IVF for a start, whatever the age of the parents. Artificial kneecaps. Liver transplants. Face transplants. Electricity. Viagra. Need I go on? If we were to live entirely in line with ‘what's natural', Belfast would resemble Amish country with horse-drawn buggies clip-clopping along Royal Avenue. Also, if Adeney had been a 66-year-old man, it would have been cigars all round and to hell with the actuary tables. Life in the old dog yet and so on. There’d be no debates about children suffering psychological trauma there, I'll bet. Instead, we’d say that while he mightn’t be able to kick a ball with the nipper, he can give him the benefit of his great wisdom. But that's another story.

No, of course, Elizabeth Adeney’s pregnancy is not ideal, but the reaction surrounding her eight-month bump has shown up some of our deepest prejudices.

And what sort of society is that to raise a child in?