Cherie: 'I can use contraception AND be a good Catholic girl'

She appeared to challenge Catholic teaching on artificial birth control as she spoke about the impact of contraception on women's lives.

Mrs Blair, who made her comments in a GMTV interview with Lorraine Kelly, said the ability to control their fertility had "changed" how women live.

Her remarks came after Ms Kelly told Mrs Blair that emails from viewers were mentioning her admission in her new book Speaking For Myself that she had not packed her "contraceptive equipment" for a visit to Balmoral, which resulted in her pregnancy with her youngest son Leo.

Controversial: Cherie Blair challenged Catholic teaching on birth control during her interview with Lorraine Kelly on GMTV this morning

"People seem to be quite shocked that perhaps a Catholic girl even uses contraception but it is really an important thing for women because one of the things about the book is about how women's lives have changed," Mrs Blair told Ms Kelly.

"One of the reasons women's lives have changed is that they have been able to control their fertility, it is an important issue."

Mrs Blair's remarks came after she spoke of the 10 "fantastic" years she had enjoyed in Downing Street, a time when she had met the Queen and two Popes.

She said meeting two Popes was a "huge thing" for a "good Catholic girl".

Mrs Blair's remarks on contraception come after Pope Benedict XVI earlier this month strongly defended the 1968 Papal encyclical Humanae Vitae, the controversial Papal document against artificial birth control.

Tony Blair was received into the Catholic Church shortly before Christmas and gave a public lecture earlier this year at Westminster Cathedral.

The Blairs have brought up all four of their children as Catholics.

Their youngest son, Leo, made his First Holy Communion at the weekend in Westminster Cathedral, Mrs Blair revealed yesterday in an interview with the Press Association.

A spokesman for the Catholic Church in England and Wales declined to comment.

Also in her interview, Mrs Blair heaped praise on the Queen, speaking of her kindness towards her. She said Leo, who is eight years old today, had loved her corgis.

"The Queen was very kind on a number of occasions, including letting me bring my mother to one of the events I went to and being very nice to my mum," she said.

Mrs Blair said it was a "very special thing" to go to Balmoral.

She said: "The Royal Family were very kind and welcoming and did a lot to put us at ease, and the Queen, in particular, was very kind to me and I shall forever be grateful for that."

Mrs Blair also said that she had not revealed whether Leo had been given measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine at the height of the scare over the jab because of concerns about his privacy.

She said: "I thought if we start issuing bulletins every time Leo has an injection or every time he falls over and hurts his knee that is just not a natural thing to do," she said.

"I just wanted to keep his health a private matter. But in fact, looking at it now, in that case, it probably would have been a better thing to have made an exception."

Asked about whether the publication of her book  undermined Gordon Brown, Mrs Blair said it was not a political book but was a "woman's book" about her life.