Princess Beatrice reveals moving insight into daughter’s preterm birth
Princess Beatrice has opened up for the first time about her daughter’s birth.
On January 29, the Royal Family announced that the Princess had given birth to her second child. Beatrice welcomed a baby girl named Athena, alongside her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.
The couple are also parents to their three-year-old daughter Sienna, as well as Edoardo’s eight-year-old son, Christopher ‘Wolfie’ Woolf, from a previous relationship.
At the time, the royal statement revealed that Athena weighed “4 pounds and 5 ounces”. Now, Princess Beatrice has confirmed that her daughter was born prematurely, and has opened up about her experience.
In a personal essay for British Vogue, the 36-year-old described her pregnancy as “an overwhelming fear of the unknown.”
“Following routine scans we became aware our precious cargo needed close monitoring, and understood we needed to prepare for an early arrival. What I learnt in this process has been humbling: understanding so much more about our remarkable human bodies, but also, more than anything, what we don’t know,” Beatrice penned.
“So many elements of pregnancy are universal. I’ve had a life that is out of the ordinary, but my joys and fears in pregnancy and motherhood are the same as those experienced by millions of other women around the world,” the mother-of-two confessed.
Beatrice continued: “Like countless other expectant mums, I lay awake in the weeks leading up to birth, trying to monitor each movement of the baby in my tummy and asking myself a thousand times: ‘What if this happens, or what if that happens?’”
Noting that she was “very fortunate” with her medical team, the royal mum later reflected on her daughter’s birth.
“Athena arrived healthy, a few weeks before her due date. She was so tiny it took more than a few weeks for the tears of relief to dry and for life with our healthy baby to feel real. Her feet were so small – almost the same size as the paws on one of my older daughter’s soft bunnies,” Beatrice explained.
“I’m extremely pleased to let you know Athena is now doing really well, I have a few more answers as to what happened, but still no precise explanation,” she concluded, adding that “more can be done to help others find answers to those questions."
