It takes quite a lot to knock MPs' expenses off the front pages these days, so I was amazed, as I grabbed a random tabloid while rushing for a plane on Saturday morning, to discover that the big news of the day was a story of impending motherhood. A British woman was pregnant, we learnt from the six-inch high headlines, and a pretty scandalous pregnancy the paper thought it was.

It wasn't that she was a single mum. It wasn't that she was divorced. It wasn't that she was choosing to give birth by (boo, hiss) caesarean section. No, the reason we were learning about this blissful mother-to-be was that this mother-to-be was old. In fact, she is eight months gone at 66, and is therefore likely to be the oldest mother in the proud history of British maternity. She is the mother of all mothers!

Instead of sharing this woman's joy, the reporting dripped with disapproval. "Desperate for a child," said the headline. "I don't need to defend myself, says divorcée." There was another account of an older mother, in a sidebar headed, "I know people think I'm selfish." I read every word of the accounts, preparing to be decently outraged by the lady's life choices. After about five minutes I came up for air, feeling rather sympathetic towards her, and that there was something mean about the coverage.