BBC presenter Rachel Burden says she was ‘really selfish’ to have baby at 41

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Broadcaster Rachel Burden has branded her determination to have a baby at 41 as a “really selfish thing to do”.

The BBC 5 Live and BBC Breakfast presenter already had three kids along with her husband Luke Mendham when she grew to become pregnant along with her fourth.

Burden, now 49, mentioned she was smug to suppose that the fourth beginning expertise can be with out its issues.

“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 informed fellow presenter Gabby Logan in a brand 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 mentioned she spent a very long time making an attempt to persuade her husband it was the proper concept, and when she ultimately grew to become pregnant, she realised issues weren’t “quite right”, and the baby was ultimately born untimely at simply 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 mentioned she was about 29 to 30 weeks pregnant when she attended a check-up when she was informed she had the indicators of pre-eclampsia, which is a situation that causes hypertension throughout being pregnant, often within the second half, and might be critical if not handled.

Burden mentioned: “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 beginning to baby Henry in February 2016 at 31 weeks, weighing 3lb.

She mentioned that her baby had skinny and fragile pores and skin and joked he appeared  “a bit like baby gollum” however was finally wholesome.

“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.”