Latest news with #birthplan
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Married At First Sight star Ella Ding shares pregnancy update...after backlash over sponsored announcement post: 'Every day I'm in awe'
Married At First Sight fan favourite Ella Ding has given a pregnancy update as she prepares become a mum for the first time. Ella, 31, announced that she was expecting her first child with husband Guy Palermo last month. Taking to Instagram on Friday, Ella admitted that she was 'finally' getting excited about the impending arrival, answering a fan AMA. The fan asked: 'Are you going private for birth? What's your experience so far?' Ella revealed that she plans to give birth in a private hospital, admitting it made her feel less 'nervous.' From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. 'Pregnancy and giving birth were never things I used to imagine or fantasise about until I met my husband,' she wrote. 'Only recently have I started feeling truly excited rather than nervous. Most of my close girlfriends have had children, some even two, and I've found that going private helps calm my nerves.' She added that her doctors have made her transition to first-time mum as smooth as possible. 'So far, my experience has been very smooth,' she said. 'My OB has made me feel relaxed, supported and guided, while still trusting my gut along the way.' She added: 'He's very black and white, no sugar coating, and a little old school, which I really appreciate.' Rounding out her expansive answer, Ella added that she was 'loving every moment' of her pregnancy journey. 'Grateful doesn't even begin to cover it,' she said. Every single day I'm in awe.' Ella revealed that she was expecting back in May In a series of photos, Ella posed alongside her husband Guy Palermo, who she married last year, while displaying her small baby bump and a positive Clearblue pregnancy test. Another snap showed several Polaroids of her showing off her bump, plus a selfie with Guy and a sonogram image of their baby on the way. 'Somewhere between healing and hustling, the next chapter quietly chose us,' she captioned her post. 'Baby Palermo you've already made our story sweeter & given us the best news of 2025 yet #ad #ClearblueConfirmed.' Following the announcement, Ella's former 'bestie' and MAFS star Domenica Calarco called her out for revealing her pregnancy with a sponsored post. Ella's announcement was reposed by the @ Instagram page. Domenica took to the comments section to slam Ella for 'monetising her pregnancy'. 'Even has to monetise her pregnancy announcement. Some people will never change. Wow,' she wrote. Many of Ella's fans too umbrage with the sponsored post, too, causing the reality star to respond to the backlash. 'If it makes sense to me and my people understand, that's all that matters. And if you got offered, you would take it!' she told Yahoo Lifestyle. Ella also noted that the cost of living crisis was a reasonable excuse for saying yes to the brand partnership, adding that having a baby is 'f***ing expensive'. Ella and Guy shocked fans when they said 'I do' in a surprise wedding ceremony back in April 2024. She took to Instagram to confirm they had exchanged vows, just weeks after announcing their engagement. She announced that she and Guy wed in a secret ceremony ahead of their reception at The Prahran Arcade's Sophia venue in Melbourne. Ella, who also recently launched her new podcast The Ella Era, opened up about her pregnancy cravings in an exclusive chat with Daily Mail Australia. 'I've been really wanting Dim Sims,' she said. 'We went to South Melbourne Markets and I got like a fried and a steamed dim sim with chili and soy. Even talking about it now I'm like, I need to go back and get more.
Daily Telegraph
11-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Telegraph
Madeleine West details traumatic birth of seventh baby at 47
Don't miss out on the headlines from Celebrity Life. Followed categories will be added to My News. Can we have a little chat about birth trauma? Might not be everyone's cup of tea, but given everyone here either came from a womb or has one, it's far from irrelevant. And it's the last thing expectant parents consider when the big day – birth day – arrives. They wade into the trenches, ideal birth plan clutched to their chest, whale songs and Enya on Spotify, and a bag of barley sugars, incense and hope slung over one shoulder. My most recent birth plan was pretty matter-of-fact. Baby number seven, this was by design a no-frills affair. I'm not jaded, but I've come to respect that birth rarely goes to plan. Babies play by their own rules and our only job is getting them safely earthside. But this time, everything slid sideways in the most unexpected fashion. 'I've never felt pain on that scale.' Madeleine West has opened up about giving birth to her seventh child, in an exclusive column for Stellar. Picture: Christopher Ferguson for Stellar My baby's birth was capital T traumatic. I still choke up talking about it. But talk we must, because when things go pear-shaped – like so many scarring events we experience in life – by pretending it didn't happen, or downplaying it, we don't do ourselves any favours. Like many, I underwent a Caesarean section. Not because I'm 'too posh to push', rather because I have what my nan referred to as snake hips, and I'm too wise this late in the game to run any risks experimenting with alternatives. Yet this time the routine epidural didn't land right. As a consequence, I felt the procedure. Once a Caesar is underway, it's too late to sit a patient up and start over. The only option was to be knocked out, and I refused. I had to be present for my baby's first breath. No-one is to blame. These things do happen. I made my choice. Listen to a new episode of Something To Talk About featuring Candice Warner below: I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice to say I've never felt pain on that scale – which is saying something from someone who has been hit in the head by a bus. Between passing out, gritting my teeth, and dropping the odd F-bomb, I did my best to make it appear tolerable to avoid sedation. Immediately my body went into shock. Organs started to fail, and I swelled to Michelin Man proportions with extreme oedema. But my mind proved hardest to wrangle. It replayed the sensations on an endless loop, and tries to still, striving to make sense of the incomprehensible. I felt guilty. Had I somehow prompted this to happen? Did I exercise too much? Did I eat something wrong? Was it because I dared to proceed despite my 'geriatric' age? Pointless musings I know, but so was my mind screaming: 'this isn't supposed to happen!' I delivered a healthy, gorgeous bub, but my little one's arrival was tarnished by pain and an utter loss of control. 'I do believe as women and mums-to-be we are sold a myth as to how birth should be.' Picture: Christopher Ferguson for Stellar I do believe as women and mums-to-be we are sold a myth as to how birth 'should' be, thanks to the tsunami of maternity inspo clogging up our social media feeds and unrealistic, almost erotic representations of birth on our screens. As a result, if we don't achieve calm birth perfection, complete with unicorns and stardust beneath a full moon, we are left feeling we have somehow failed. But sometimes birthing goes wrong. More often than not it will deviate from your plan, and some of us come out on the other side and promptly chuck the whale song soundtrack, the 'calm birth' guide and any illusions about what constitutes a perfect birth in the bin. What lingers is the shame. And that lasts longer than scars and cracked nipples. If you achieved the perfect water birth, a seamless transition to breastfeeding, your bub sleeping through the night by six weeks old, and sliding back into your skinny jeans after three months – then go you! Amazing. But if you didn't, does than make your experience of birth or early motherhood any less valid? All too often we mums feel it does. Hence we avoid the topic, confess our experience with eyes downcast, or pretend it was different to how it actually played out. Is it any wonder post-natal depression is such an issue? I'm an old fart now and it's not my first rodeo, but in my opinion birth trauma is not discussed nearly enough. So many of us are carrying around scars both physical and psychological precisely because we never took the time to treat the wound. When the prevailing advice from our nearest and dearest is 'she'll be right', it's hard to open up about how we really feel. Also, when sharing your story is met with overblown rhetoric like: 'I was shearing the sheep when my waters broke, but I kept at it, went home to whip up a roast, slapped on some lippy and delivered in the bathtub.' Urban legends never reassure anyone, they just add to the sense of failure. Bringing babies into the world is not a competitive sport. No one does it best, we just do it, as we have since the dawn of mankind. I hope more of us can learn to own our unique experience with pride. No matter what the outcome or how far it veered off our desired course, the act of giving birth is still one of the riskiest, most arduous, thrilling and indescribable undertakings the human body will ever endure. What a miracle to play our part in the timeless cycle of ushering in new life. Why judge a journey by the means we got there, when all that matters is that we arrive? Why am I speaking out? Because sharing my story hurts a little less every time I do. I'll never say, 'I wouldn't change a thing.' But when I step back and see the whole picture – a dramatic final act in an otherwise uneventful pregnancy – I choose instead to be grateful. As my organs heal, the swelling subsides, and the physical pain fades, I remind myself what it brought me: my beautiful little one, sleeping peacefully in my arms as I type. And that I wouldn't miss for the world. For more from Stellar and the podcast, Something To Talk About, click here. Find the latest issue of Stellar inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD) and Sunday Mail (SA).
News.com.au
10-05-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
‘My baby's birth was capital T traumatic': Madeleine West says she ‘felt her C-section'
Can we have a little chat about birth trauma? Might not be everyone's cup of tea, but given everyone here either came from a womb or has one, it's far from irrelevant. And it's the last thing expectant parents consider when the big day – birth day – arrives. They wade into the trenches, ideal birth plan clutched to their chest, whale songs and Enya on Spotify, and a bag of barley sugars, incense and hope slung over one shoulder. My most recent birth plan was pretty matter-of-fact. Baby number seven, this was by design a no-frills affair. I'm not jaded, but I've come to respect that birth rarely goes to plan. Babies play by their own rules and our only job is getting them safely earthside. But this time, everything slid sideways in the most unexpected fashion. My baby's birth was capital T traumatic. I still choke up talking about it. But talk we must, because when things go pear-shaped – like so many scarring events we experience in life – by pretending it didn't happen, or downplaying it, we don't do ourselves any favours. Like many, I underwent a Caesarean section. Not because I'm 'too posh to push', rather because I have what my nan referred to as snake hips, and I'm too wise this late in the game to run any risks experimenting with alternatives. Yet this time the routine epidural didn't land right. As a consequence, I felt the procedure. Once a Caesar is underway, it's too late to sit a patient up and start over. The only option was to be knocked out, and I refused. I had to be present for my baby's first breath. No-one is to blame. These things do happen. I made my choice. I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice to say I've never felt pain on that scale – which is saying something from someone who has been hit in the head by a bus. Between passing out, gritting my teeth, and dropping the odd F-bomb, I did my best to make it appear tolerable to avoid sedation. Immediately my body went into shock. Organs started to fail, and I swelled to Michelin Man proportions with extreme oedema. But my mind proved hardest to wrangle. It replayed the sensations on an endless loop, and tries to still, striving to make sense of the incomprehensible. I felt guilty. Had I somehow prompted this to happen? Did I exercise too much? Did I eat something wrong? Was it because I dared to proceed despite my 'geriatric' age? Pointless musings I know, but so was my mind screaming: 'this isn't supposed to happen!' I delivered a healthy, gorgeous bub, but my little one's arrival was tarnished by pain and an utter loss of control. I do believe as women and mums-to-be we are sold a myth as to how birth 'should' be, thanks to the tsunami of maternity inspo clogging up our social media feeds and unrealistic, almost erotic representations of birth on our screens. As a result, if we don't achieve calm birth perfection, complete with unicorns and stardust beneath a full moon, we are left feeling we have somehow failed. But sometimes birthing goes wrong. More often than not it will deviate from your plan, and some of us come out on the other side and promptly chuck the whale song soundtrack, the 'calm birth' guide and any illusions about what constitutes a perfect birth in the bin. What lingers is the shame. And that lasts longer than scars and cracked nipples. If you achieved the perfect water birth, a seamless transition to breastfeeding, your bub sleeping through the night by six weeks old, and sliding back into your skinny jeans after three months – then go you! Amazing. But if you didn't, does than make your experience of birth or early motherhood any less valid? All too often we mums feel it does. Hence we avoid the topic, confess our experience with eyes downcast, or pretend it was different to how it actually played out. Is it any wonder post-natal depression is such an issue? I'm an old fart now and it's not my first rodeo, but in my opinion birth trauma is not discussed nearly enough. So many of us are carrying around scars both physical and psychological precisely because we never took the time to treat the wound. When the prevailing advice from our nearest and dearest is 'she'll be right', it's hard to open up about how we really feel. Also, when sharing your story is met with overblown rhetoric like: 'I was shearing the sheep when my waters broke, but I kept at it, went home to whip up a roast, slapped on some lippy and delivered in the bathtub.' Urban legends never reassure anyone, they just add to the sense of failure. Bringing babies into the world is not a competitive sport. No one does it best, we just do it, as we have since the dawn of mankind. I hope more of us can learn to own our unique experience with pride. No matter what the outcome or how far it veered off our desired course, the act of giving birth is still one of the riskiest, most arduous, thrilling and indescribable undertakings the human body will ever endure. What a miracle to play our part in the timeless cycle of ushering in new life. Why judge a journey by the means we got there, when all that matters is that we arrive? Why am I speaking out? Because sharing my story hurts a little less every time I do. I'll never say, 'I wouldn't change a thing.' But when I step back and see the whole picture – a dramatic final act in an otherwise uneventful pregnancy – I choose instead to be grateful. As my organs heal, the swelling subsides, and the physical pain fades, I remind myself what it brought me: my beautiful little one, sleeping peacefully in my arms as I type. And that I wouldn't miss for the world.
ABC News
06-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
More men reaching out for perinatal mental health support when having children
A day after making her birth plan, Maddy Dawe was in labour. "I don't even think I knew how I was feeling, I was just in shock," she said, of the unexpected early birth. While trying to comprehend the situation, Maddy's partner Lauchlan Craig found himself driving them to another hospital in Melbourne's outer-east, because the one they had planned to use was full. He doesn't quite remember the trip there. 'I think I was quite stressed at the time and running on adrenaline,' Mr Craig said. That night, their son was born premature at 34 weeks and six days. 'He was actually squeezing my finger really tightly, and I just knew that everything was going to be OK,' Mr Craig said. Mr Craig had dreamed of being a dad for years. ( ABC News: Tara Whitchurch ) For as long as he can remember, the 34-year-old knew he wanted to be a dad. So when Ms Dawe fell pregnant, he said they were both delighted. " The prospect of becoming parents for the first time is something that we'd spoken about for many years and dreamed of. " There were some initial nerves after the couple's previous miscarriage, but they faded away after hearing their baby's heartbeat at 14 weeks. 'It was just pure joy and just happiness,' Mr Craig said. Mr Craig experienced a period of stress and anxiety after the birth of his son. ( ABC News: Tara Whitchurch ) A short time after arriving home from hospital, Maddy was readmitted with an infection, where she stayed for a fortnight. ""It was an acutely stressful couple of weeks for our new little family and I think we both felt pretty powerless in the situation," she said. Mr Craig found himself looking after a newborn as well as his partner. 'I think you take the back seat a little bit. I think your own mental and physical health just is pushed to the side,' he said. The new father became the primary caregiver to his son and wife. ( ABC News: Tara Whitchurch ) Experiencing a busy and stressful few weeks after the birth, Mr Craig said his feelings started to change. 'I was on the edge. I just didn't really feel like myself. " [I was] just worrying about the other two, and how they're doing, and really just at breaking point. " He started losing his appetite and his sleep patterns also changed, which were characterised by the heightened stress and anxiety. 'I was in fight or flight mode. [I] didn't really know where to turn to, or who to talk to,' he said. Ms Dawe said it was difficult watching these events impact her partner's mental health. "It was an acutely stressful couple of weeks for our new little family and I think we both felt pretty powerless in the situation," she said. The new father, who had a history of depression, then picked up the phone for help. Searching for support Mr Craig was at a medical appointment with his newborn son when he broke into tears. 'It just went from zero to 100 quite quickly in a very short amount of time,' he said. " I was familiar with postnatal depression within mothers in particular. I'd never really heard that term used for fathers or secondary carers before. " Mr Craig called 'I immediately knew that they were familiar with what I was feeling,' he said. The ForWhen clinicians have expertise in perinatal and infant mental health, which spans from the start of pregnancy to when the child is 12 months old. The service also helps people who have recently lost a baby. Erin Duncan is a Victorian care navigator with the service. She said there had been an influx of new fathers calling in since ForWhen launched three years ago. 'We've absolutely seen an increase in the number of men. More often they're referred by their partner or a health professional,' she said. Erin Duncan regularly follows up with callers to check in on their mental health. ( ABC News: Costa Haritos ) The service has supported more than 7,500 parents over the past three years, including hundreds of men. Each phone call typically begins with a conversation about what the caller is experiencing, before a screening process to understand the stress on their family. 'Often it can be really hard for men to reach out for support, particularly in the perinatal period where they might see their needs are secondary to their partner's,' Ms Duncan said. 'If dads don't reach out for support, then it's going to impact the whole family. 'They kind of take a bit of a back role and put themselves second to everyone else." About 12 per cent of callers are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, including a growing number of Indigenous couples. ForWhen will often check in on people after their initial phone call to help parents navigate the complex journey into parenthood. 'It's probably one of the biggest transitions that we go through in life, being a new parent,' Ms Duncan said. More men with symptoms Sean Menere is a counsellor at 'Postnatal depression in men is an abstract concept that people just haven't really thought of up until the point that they're experiencing it,' he said. About one in 10 fathers experience poor mental health during the pregnancy phase or their child's first year. Researchers say those with a partner experiencing postnatal depression may be at risk. Other contributing factors include a history of mental illness, relationship dissatisfaction and low family income. Counsellor Sean Menere speaks to many new fathers about their mental health. ( ABC News: Costa Haritos ) 'There's emotional peaks and troughs that you may not have experienced before,' Mr Menere said. " A lot of men are under the impression that this is an amazing time and being a new father is this incredible experience, and then the baby arrives and they don't feel that. " Back in Melbourne's east, Lauchlan Craig said his experiences with perinatal anxiety and depression have recently prompted a career change from his current profession as a graphic designer. 'I think everything that I've gone through and my family's gone through, led me to pursue a different career, which is in counselling,' he said. Mr Craig has completed his first trimester of study, while his son recently had his first birthday. Weeks later, he and Maddy got married. He said since seeking professional help, he has become a better husband, father, and had more important conversations with his friends. 'That phone call proceeded to change my life, and our lives in a positive way," Mr Craig said. 'But it's definitely a phone call and a service that I wish I'd accessed a lot sooner.'
