Broadcaster Rachel Burden has branded her decision to have a child at 41 as a “really selfish thing to do”.
The BBC 5 Live and BBC Breakfast presenter already had three children with her husband Luke Mendham when she became pregnant with her fourth.
Burden, now 49, said she was arrogant to think that the fourth birth experience would be without its complications.
“I had three very sort of straightforward pregnancies and I made the terribly arrogant assumption I’d have a fourth baby and it would be fine and straightforward,” she told fellow presenter Gabby Logan in a new episode of Mid.Point podcast.
“And I think sometimes when I reflect on it, I think it was a really selfish thing to do. I came from a big family – I really wanted a big family. I had that moment where Luke and I sat around a table when the third child had gone to school and thought, ‘Oh, this is so boring.’”
She said she spent a long time trying to convince her husband it was the right idea, and when she eventually became pregnant, she realised things were not “quite right”, and the baby was eventually born premature at just 31 weeks.
“As the pregnancy went on, something wasn’t quite right and I was kind of puffing up.
“My mum was saying to me, ‘Something is not quite right about this,’ and I was saying, ‘Nah, nah, it’s fine, I’m just busy.’
“I eventually went into hospital for a semi-routine check-up; they were keeping a bit more of an eye on me.”
The radio presenter said she was about 29 to 30 weeks pregnant when she attended a check-up when she was told she had the signs of pre-eclampsia, which is a condition that causes high blood pressure during pregnancy, usually in the second half, and can be serious if not treated.
Burden said: “So then I was taken and put on a bed and sort of wired up, and all of this. I was still a bit nonplussed, going: ‘I’ve got an OB [outside broadcasting] in Glasgow on Monday so I’ll make that, won’t I?’
But doctors told her she was in a critical condition and that the baby needed to be born sooner than planned.
“And they were like, ‘No, this is a really critical situation which you’re in and you’ve got to get your head around that, and you won’t be leaving hospital and this baby’s going to come out much sooner than you think.
“Then, at that stage, initially we didn’t know whether they’d try and sustain the pregnancy for another few weeks. But in the end they were like, ‘Oh no, your blood pressure is really spiking’, so they moved me up to Burnley.
“And he was out within 36 hours of them identifying the pre-eclampsia.”
Burden gave birth to baby Henry in February 2016 at 31 weeks, weighing 3lb.
She said that her baby had thin and fragile skin and joked he looked “a bit like baby gollum” but was ultimately healthy.
“Anyone who’s had a tiny premmy baby will know that their skin is so thin and fragile – they’re still supposed to be inside you,” she added.
“But we had amazing care and it took eight weeks for him to come out of hospital to feed and grow, and get to the size he needed to be at, as in a newborn baby size.”
“I’ve been extremely fortunate, and I’m very aware talking about this with other women and families who have been through fertility issues, and so on.”
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