'I'm very excited and... petrified' MEP Maria Walsh reveals baby's gender

As she reveals the gender of her baby, Maria Walsh describes her journey to get pregnant as an emotional rollercoaster that has seen her endure multiple setbacks, cruel jibes about her weight, and questioning her loneliness. 'It's just me, so I'm single parenting,' she tells EVOKE. 'I've tried to be open about it; there were a reported 6,000 IVF cycles in Ireland last year, and if you equate that to how often we've talked about it [in the Dáil], it's abysmal; it's imbalanced.' Today's top videos The decision to become a parent on her own wasn't an easy one, and Maria recalls how: 'I ended up asking myself questions of "am I doing this because I am lonely and not in a partnership? Am I doing this because the fulfilment of work is not sustaining me anymore? Maria Walsh. Pic: Supplied "Can I do this? Can you have a career and be a mother at the same time? Who's in my village?" I have parents and siblings and amazing friends and an incredible team, but at the end of the day, I am the sole responsible person for this little person.' Maria's road to becoming pregnant wasn't an easy one. An initial appointment proved to be disappointing, but even when she found the right consultant, there were more setbacks to come. 'We had some delays... I produced too many eggs when we did the egg retrieval, and from there I needed to rest my body because I had produced too much estrogen, so that was disappointing,' she recalled. Maria Walsh. Pic: Supplied Maria continued: 'When I went in, around September time, I had issues with the lining of my womb. It just wasn't thick enough, so that delayed the egg transfer because you have a high probability of miscarriage.' Maria finally had the egg transfer in January, but a few short weeks later suffered through a miscarriage scare. 'I had the egg transfer, and then all was going so well, and then I had a little miscarriage scare at the end of February this year where I started bleeding for a few days,' she said. 'I was in Brussels, and I was crazy busy with work, and because of my work, I didn't get home to scan until the following Monday, so it was a long week. 'I'm sure many women will relate, you end up splitting your head, your brain and your body disassociates in order to survive, and for me I immediately went into "well if I am miscarrying, I'll probably have to wait two months, and then we'll go again and how do I get myself healthier and better so I don't miscarry again?" 'You're trapped in this half fear, heavy blame game, but I was really fortunate when I rescanned.' Maria Walsh at the Businesswoman of the Year Awards. Pic supplied Maria has mostly kept her pregnancy under wraps, but there have been some lonely moments along the way. 'I didn't tell anybody, none of my family,... because in my personal life I was trying to have some element of control as to what was happening.' She goes on to add: 'There are parts where you look back and go, "I wish I had someone to lean into", perhaps when I thought I might ha