NANA AKUA: Giving birth to my son almost killed me but motherhood hasn't ruined my career -  it's inspired it

My second child almost killed me. He was born at just 28 weeks and three days. And while he battled for his life in intensive care, I did the same as my liver shut down and my kidneys failed due to complications from the birth.

If it weren't for modern medicine and the fact that I was fit, I would certainly have died.

But I remember lying in that hospital bed thinking only one thing. If my boy can survive this, then so can I. And what's more, I will never take his life or my own for granted. I will work every day to give him the life he deserves.

I am blessed to have two children - a girl and a boy - and without a doubt, they have been the making of me.

So I was disappointed to hear the singer Lily Allen tell the Radio Times earlier this week that having kids 'totally ruined' her career. Allen - who has two daughters with her ex-husband Sam Cooper - went on to say: 'I get really annoyed when people say you can 'have it all' because, quite frankly, you can't.'

Lily Allen, who has two daughters, told the Radio Times earlier this week that having  'totally ruined' her career

My first reaction was that she must have a new album to sell - why else would she say something so shockingly backwards, so damaging to women?

I'm sick and tired of weak people like Lily telling women they can't have it all. Because, you know what? We can.

Some women might want to be stay at home mothers and others might not want to have children at all. Of course, either is fine. But what we don't need is a C-list has-been - the nepo-baby daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen - telling other women what they can and cannot achieve.

After my son and I came out of hospital, I decided to get a grip on my life. I split up with my partner who I knew wasn't good for me and made a plan to excel in broadcast journalism. I was already working on BBC local radio, so I pitched them five new shows and offered to do unpaid work for BBC Look East, their TV news arm. I won my pitch and a contract with Look East.

Six years on, and - among other things - I have my own show on GB News and this column for the Daily Mail.

Sure, being a mother and  having a career is hard work, writes Nana Akua. But it can be done

My son didn't 'ruin' my career: he inspired it.

My daughter, who came along nine years earlier, had a similar effect on me. Back then, I was a single mother who needed to provide for her child. So I started a fitness business from scratch. Every early morning trip to the gym and every late night spent replying to emails: it was all for her.

Frankly, it would be very easy for me today to pack it all in and spend each morning packing lunch boxes. But that's not what I want. I want to show my children what hard graft looks like, and especially, to show my own daughter that she too can have a family and a career.

To add insult to injury, however, multi-millionairess Lily added that she doesn't regret prematurely slamming the brakes on her pop career, saying: 'I'm glad I've done that because I think they're pretty well-rounded.'

Is she suggesting that working mothers are complicit in some sort of neglect? That our children won't be 'well-rounded'?

Despite working full-time, I've always made sure to spend quality time with my children - even if that means getting up well before them so I can get work done before the school run, or getting back to my laptop long after I've put them to bed.

Sure, it's hard work. But it can be done. And just because it isn't for Lily - who only knows the trappings of wealth and fame - it doesn't mean it can't be for the rest of us.

So here's my message to women up and down the country. Work out what 'having it all' means to you, then go out and get it - and ignore the pathetic wails of losers like Lily.