Premature birth can be incredibly lonely, says Beatrice

"PA Media 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."

""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."

Princess Beatrice described premature birth as an isolating experience and reflected on her own daughter's early arrival. She became a patron of Borne months after that daughter was born several weeks early. Medical advice in December led to altered travel plans amid warnings that a premature arrival was possible. Beatrice wrote that nothing prepares parents for an early birth and that there is little control in such moments. She visited Borne's research laboratories at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital as part of the Every Week Counts campaign. Borne reports 15 million babies are born too soon each year, with 60,000 in the UK, and prematurity remains the leading cause of neonatal death.

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