Broadcaster Rachel Burden has said that her decision to have a baby at the age of 41 was a ‘really selfish thing to do’.
The BBC 5 Live and BBC Breakfast presenter already had three children when she became pregnant with her fourth, after discussing the idea at length with her husband, fellow journalist Luke Mendham.
Ms Burden, now 49, said: ‘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.
‘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’.’
Ms Burden said she spent a ‘long time’ trying to convince her husband that ‘this was the right idea’.
Speaking to the Mid Point podcast, she added: ‘And then I was 40 or 41 and I did get pregnant, and kind of said, ‘It will be fine, you will barely even notice it’. 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’.’
It emerged when she went for a hospital check-up that Ms Burden had ‘all the signs of pre-eclampsia’ – a condition that causes high blood pressure during pregnancy that can be serious if left untreated.
Within 36 hours of being diagnosed with the condition in February 2016, Ms Burden gave birth to baby Henry at just 31 weeks into the pregnancy.
She acknowledged that she was ‘incredibly fortunate because he was effectively a healthy baby – he was tiny, he was 3lb, but he was healthy’.
She added: ‘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. 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.’
The number of women having babies over 40 has been increasing in recent years – overtaking the number of women under the age of 20 for the first time in 2015, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Pregnancies for over-40s carry a higher risk of complications such as pre-eclampsia, as well as hypertension and diabetes.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
