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Motherhood has never stopped for Liz Mills, who has helped raise 81 babies.
Over the 12 years that she has volunteered as a foster mother, she's barely had a night free of a child or two. She hasn't had a holiday in 10 years.
But Mrs Mills does not want to change anything. She has always loved babies - and after having three of her own, was sad when she realised she could not have any more.
Then one day when looking after a friend's baby, she met someone from the Bethany Centre - a haven for young pregnant mothers - who told Mrs Mills the organisation was always looking for mothers to help care for babies.
Within a week, Mrs Mills was holding her first baby and says she hasn't looked back.
She soon began caring for babies awaiting adoption and after completing Child Youth and Family training, started looking after babies who were under care and protection.
During the first few years of her fostering, Mrs Mills' teenagers were living at her home in Birkenhead, but they never seemed to tire of their mum's youngsters.
Babies remain in her care for anything from days to 18 months.
Of course she got attached, but Mrs Mills said she could not be sad about letting them go - especially when she saw the joy on the adoptive parents' faces. But she does have a chair in her wardrobe where she sits and sheds a few tears after saying goodbye.
Caring for babies has opened Mrs Mills' eyes to some devastating cases and also the tireless work of social workers.
Her family fostered one boy with low-functioning autism until he was seven years old and since then Mrs Mills has started looking after babies with disabilities and fetal alcohol syndrome.
Some nights she would be lucky to get one hour's sleep, but she makes sure she takes naps during the day.
"You have to have a sense of humour and understand that some nights you just won't get any sleep," she said.
By committing to high-needs babies, Mrs Mills has had to forfeit a lot of her free time - it's hard to organise meeting h friends for coffee. She has also had to stop some of her other voluntary work such as puppy walking - but she does still find time to do cross-stitch.
While Mrs Mills said it was sad that society still needed foster parents, she hoped she could continue helping for a long time.
"I've had to make some sacrifices, but I'm passionate about this - I get up every day and think there's nothing I would rather do."
