After all motherhood is not only the most common thread that knits women together it is also a mysterious and exciting process

After all, motherhood is not only the most common thread that knits women together, it is also a mysterious and exciting process, and it is also bloody hard, undervalued work.It's fair to be impressed by Cherie Booth for going through with a fourth pregnancy at the age of 45. "Go, Cherie go! A glorious, gleeful, irrational buzz ran through the freemasonry of women with nearly-grown families!" said yet another.Why are the Telegraph and the Mail suddenly on Cherie's side? Because this is the image of womanhood that deep down, they all like best. "I lie awake at night worrying about the wisdom of having a last baby in my mid-forties," said one "I have a new respect for Cherie. I am 13 weeks pregnant too, and am exhausted just brushing my teeth," said another. "As Cherie must already know, there is nothing that makes Christmas quite so perfect as being pregnant," said yet another.

Libby Purves, Cassandra Jardine, Alice Thomson, Vicki Woods and others gave their congratulations and sisterly advice to Cherie Blair. The general feeling towards her was very good."On Tuesday she was back on the front page, this time posing with Darcey Bussell at the Royal Opera House and sharing "a few personal details" with the press about the baby clothes and flowers that were "flooding" into Downing Street.Aside from the news stories, the Times, Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and the Mail lined up their columnists to pat Cherie on the back. At the summit lunch on the Third Way, a fellow guest was quoted saying, "Cherie looked lovely She was wearing a white woollen dress Everyone was remarking on how pretty she looked. "A radiant Cherie Blair," the piece began, and went on to mention that "Mr Blair put a protective arm around his wife's shoulders".The following Monday Cherie's picture finally left the front page, but it dominated an inside page of the Telegraph. "The Blairs have stressed the importance, both personally and for Britain, of a sound family environment," said the Telegraph journalist, also noting with pleasure that "Mrs Blair has already scaled down her work as a barrister to take account of her role as the prime minister's wife, but she will soon have to tone down her professional life even further."And the day after the same paper ran a front-page picture of Cherie and Tony in front of No 10, with the kind of drooling copy the Blairs had never been able to command before. Cherie Blair, the perfect wife and mother, had taken her place. And all of a sudden the newspapers who had found so much to carp about gave up acres of space to showing us how much they adored her.On Friday their front pages were covered with huge pictures of a smiling Cherie Booth.

When news of the pregnancy hit the air, journalists at the Mail and the Telegraph had a sudden conversion. They no longer saw Cherie Booth, the clever lawyer with a penchant for trouser suits and political correctness. The implication was clear: even though Cherie Booth had made every effort to please them, they weren't happy.But on Thursday 18 November, everything changed. Something that Alastair Campbell had let slip about how the Blairs never felt very rich because of the amount of money they had to spend on clothes for all sorts of smart occasions was translated into the idea that Cherie Booth wanted a dress allowance.The bitching was not confined to the Tory press, by any means, but the Daily Mail went to town, with a double-page spread showing how much she had spent on various outfits and advice on how she could economise.