Premature birth can be incredibly lonely, says Princess Beatrice

Princess Beatrice has said premature birth can be “incredibly lonely”, as she reflected on her own experience for a podcast ahead of World Prematurity Day.

Her words are part of a campaign for premature birth research charity Borne, of which she became a patron months after her daughter was born several weeks early.

“I think so often, especially as mums, we spend our lives, you know, feeling we have to be perfect to do this,” Beatrice told the podcast.

“And sometimes, when you are faced with that moment of learning that your baby’s going to come a bit early, it can be incredibly lonely.”

News of the princess’s second pregnancy was announced by Buckingham Palace in October last year, and she gave birth to her second daughter Athena Elizabeth Rose in January.

Beatrice, 37, the eldest daughter of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Duke of York and the King’s brother, was due to give birth to her daughter in early spring, when, in December, she received medical advice not to travel long distances.

After changing her travel plans from spending the festive period overseas, she joined the royal family at church in Sandringham on Christmas Day with doctors said to have warned her that a premature arrival was a possibility.

“Nothing quite prepares you for the moment when you realise your baby is going to arrive early,” she wrote in British Vogue in March, adding, “there’s so little control.”

At the time of her patronage, the princess said she was “looking forward to supporting Borne and its programme of ground-breaking research”.

Last week, Beatrice, visited the charity’s research laboratories at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London as part of the Every Week Counts campaign.

According to Borne, 15 million babies arrive too soon each year, with 60,000 – or 1 in 13 – born prematurely in the UK every year.

The charity says complications from prematurity remain the leading cause of neonatal death and lifelong disability.

The princess said there was a “sense of life changing relief” knowing Borne was supporting research and asking important questions.

She added that she hoped her support of the campaign would “bring as many people that have had their own stories, to come and share them”.

“Then maybe we can learn from each other.”

World Prematurity Day is organised but the World Health Organization every year.