Ellen Davis, 29

Ellen had been on the pill for eight years when she decided to give her body a break. "We started using condoms, and one night one split. It was a Friday, the worst possible time. I knew about the morning-after pill, but I had no idea how to get hold of it outside surgery hours." She and her boyfriend got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday, phoned various friends, then headed for a clinic in Notting Hill, west London. "I was given a lot of literature about contraception, which did make me laugh. I mean, I'd been on the pill for so many years, I thought I knew what was what, and they were treating me like a teenager."

Lynne Robinson, 44

Lynne split up with husband when their daughter was four and since then she hasn't had a long term relationship. "Contraception was a totally dead issue as far as I was concerned." But in December she had a one-night-stand with a former colleague: they were drunk and had unprotected sex. The following morning, Lynne was in shock. She went to her doctor. Arriving at the surgery, she felt as if the practice nurse was treating her like a naughty schoolgirl. "Things got worse after I took the first pair of tablets. I threw up after an hour - well I was feeling a bit ropey with all the booze. I had to go back and get more pills."

Jane Summerton, 18

Jane had been seeing her boyfriend Mark for more than a year before they had sex. "We hadn't discussed contraception, I know that's probably a bit dim. On the night, we were so drunk that we didn't really know what we were doing. In the event, Mark produced a condom, but it came off. She went to her GP. "I felt covered with shame. I got a long lecture from the doctor about methods of contraception and safe sex. When I walked out of there clutching a fistful of condoms, I was in tears. Physically I felt dreadful too: the pills made me feel dizzy and drowsy, and I stayed in bed for two whole days afterwards."

Heather Ross, 37

"My husband wants children, but until recently I was unsure. We'd had a bit to drink - maybe that's why I began to be swayed by his point of view. That night I left my diaphragm in the bathroom cabinet." She went to work the next day as normal but by lunchtime she was seized with panic. "Suddenly I knew that I'd made a terrible mistake." She went to get the morning-after pill during her lunch hour. "The pills gave me a chronic headache, and my breasts felt sore and swollen. But when my period came, I felt it had all been worth it."

• Some names have been changed.