Sheffield's lockdown babies are a reminder of hope and beauty during strange and uncertain times

This week, we have asked you to share photos of your lockdown babies and you sent us dozens, which was amazing.

Every single one of those beautiful beaming little faces filled my heart with joy and, honestly, made me feel happier than I have done for a few days. So I can only imagine how much happiness they have brought to their mums, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles and siblings.

New life will, of course, always be celebrated but it feels especially important to do so at a time like this.

This is simply because new babies are – a very cute – reminder that, no matter what, life will always go on, there will always be beauty in the world and there is always a reason to be hopeful.

As well as messages from proud mums and dads, we’ve also had messages from grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who are yet to meet the new additions to their families and are desperate for those precious first cuddles.

I can only imagine how difficult it must be to not be able to see a new baby in those important first weeks of life. But it has been wonderful to read the heartwarming stories of how people are finding new ways to introduce their new bundles of joy to loved ones.

There’s the grandparents meeting their first grandchild over video chat and also those who are making signs to welcome the new addition to their family and standing in the hospital car park with it so mum can read it through the window.

All of this proves that even though we still sadly have to be apart at the moment, we are still very much together and bonded by love.

Special thanks must go, of course, to all the hospital staff including midwives who are still working round the clock as normal in these extremely abnormal times to help to bring these amazing new lives in to the world. They are doing the most incredible job.

These baby photos are also a reminder that, no matter how old we are, we are all someone’s child, grandchild and so on, and it’s so important that we all keep in touch with our family in any way that we can while we patiently wait for those longed for cuddles.

Never before has the bond of family ever been so important as it is now.