Princess Beatrice has made an important point about women's health following the birth of her premature baby.
Beatrice and her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, welcomed their second child, Athena Elizabeth Rose Mapelli Mozzi, who weighed just four pounds and five ounces, back in January.
In a new essay published in Vogue on Sunday (23 March), she admitted that 'nothing quite prepares you for the moment when you realise your baby is going to arrive early'.
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The 36-year-old mum-of-two went on to explain that she felt she was in 'so little control' of the situation as she was left with an 'overwhelming fear of the unknown' with several questions relentlessly going around in her head.
"Will she arrive healthy? Will there be complications? How will you juggle the rest of family life while trying to keep a tiny human safe and well?" she wondered at the time.
Beatrice continued: "You know that when your baby arrives the doctors and midwives are going to be there, doing everything they can to ensure she makes it through those challenging first few days.
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"But you have no idea how these things will play out, what happens next."
Beatrice explained that she 'learnt so much' from her pregnancy with Athena, noting that these questions were 'spinning through [her] mind' throughout the latter stages of it.
"Following routine scans we became aware our precious cargo needed close monitoring, and understood we needed to prepare for an early arrival," she carried on before noting that what she learnt in this process has been 'humbling'.
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"Understanding so much more about our remarkable human bodies, but also, more than anything, what we don’t know," she continued.
Beatrice went on to make a very important point about women’s health which she says has 'been left off the agenda for the longest time'.
"You can try and plan as much as possible with pregnancy, but sometimes your body - or your baby - has other ideas, which in some cases can lead to a preterm birth," she explained.
"Thankfully, with ever evolving technology in the hands of knowledgeable doctors, midwives and nurses, more progress is being made every day towards understanding the unique complications that can accompany a preterm pregnancy."
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Fortunately, everything was fine with little Athena, despite being born several weeks premature, with Beatrice gushing over what it was like first seeing her 'tiny' newborn.
"Athena arrived healthy, a few weeks before her due date," she wrote. "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."
Topics: Celebrity, Health, Parenting, Pregnancy, Royal Family, Women's Health, Princess Beatrice
Rhiannon Ingle