Latest news with #newmother
The Guardian
01-06-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
‘I'm open about how hard it is': Stephanie Case breastfed her baby in 100km race and still won
In Chamonix Stephanie Case is swaying the sway of a new mother. Pepper, her baby, is cocooned in a sling, defying sleep and gurgling politely over the video call. They became viral sensations last month when ultrarunner Stephanie won the women's section of the Snowdonia ultra-trail, a 100km race with 21,000ft of ascent, while stopping to breastfeed Pepper en route. It was an extraordinary achievement six months after giving birth and slots into an extraordinary life – on the one hand, a human rights lawyer, working in warzones around the world; on the other, an ultrarunner, whose charity, Free to Run, empowers young women and girls in areas of conflict. Case is desperate the race is not held up as something to beat new mothers with. 'The response has been so positive, but there has been a negative cohort,' she says. 'Part of those are just misogynists, but the others are exhausted mums who look at this story and think, oh my God, I could never do that. Now there's even more pressure on us to be able to have a baby and work and run races and now breastfeed during races. 'I don't want anyone to feel badly about themselves out of a story like this. I'm quite open about how hard it is and how much support I have, and the messy parts of it. At 95k I was done, dry heaving and peeing all over myself. I ran with devices internally. It's not all rainbows and bunnies and a lot of things have to come together for something like that to happen.' She praises French maternal healthcare – a week in hospital and then 10 sessions with the midwife doing pelvic floor rehab 'which is weird and intimate but so helpful. Luckily, people who are in the health field around Chamonix are used to dealing with athletes so I have lots of tricks to help me.' Case was running six weeks after Pepper's birth, but everything had changed. She now had to fit her schedule around a baby, circling back to slot in a feed. 'When you exercise, lactic acid gets into your breast milk. It doesn't change the nutritional value, but it does change the taste. I think she just got used to it and dealing with me being sweaty. 'It was more learning how to calm myself down and not come in anxious because then she'd pick up on that energy. I had to shut off that I was in the middle of a training block. I had to do the same in the race and just focus on trying to feed her.' Despite the photos from Snowdonia of a beaming Case and a bonny Pepper, the road to conception has been hard. The 42-year-old had two miscarriages, then two egg retrievals and three rounds of IVF. The process confused her relationship with running, something she had come to rely on to cope with the stress of her job. 'It can be very difficult to process some of the things I witness and the stories I hear. I find the best way to deal with those situations is to process it through movement. When I'm out on the trails, I can see black garbage coming out of my head and littering the trails behind me and then it's done.' After the first miscarriage, well-meaning friends questioned whether running could have played a part and it planted a seed of doubt in her head that became impossible to budge. Desperate to become pregnant, she started to pull back from running. 'It was very destabilising because that was a core part of my identity. Not just who I am, but how I lived my life. 'My year was structured around my race calendar and suddenly there was no race calendar. When I got pregnant and miscarried the second time, people questioned whether it was the stress of my job that caused the miscarriage. I used to use running to deal with stress so I felt like I couldn't win.' Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Before returning to her home in Chamonix for the last trimester of her pregnancy, Case had been based in Jerusalem for the three and a half years, covering Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza. She spent the beginning of 2024 in Gaza as part of the humanitarian response, meeting women who had just given birth on the floor of a shelter and were living in tents without proper nutrition. 'It was quite hard for me to ask my body to produce a life and that's exactly what I was trying to do. It felt impossible.' But, against all odds, the vagaries of IVF worked and Pepper was born in November. Snowdonia was Case's first race in three years. It will not come a surprise to learn that Case is not planning on taking it easy any time soon. As part of the North Face explorer team, she has made a documentary film about fertility and running, due out in the autumn, is running in the Hard Rock 100 in Colorado in July and a return to work beckons. All pretty extraordinary, especially for a self-confessed school nerd who played in the wind band and was so embarrassed after doing well in a cross-country race as a nine-year-old that she went bright red and withdrew from sport for a decade.
The Sun
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Gisele Bundchen stuns in barely-there lace outfit as she returns to work after having baby
GISELE Bundchen looks simply ace in lace as she returns to work three months after having a baby. The 44-year-old, who had her third child in February, says it feels like a holiday to be back in full make-up for a Vogue France photoshoot. 3 3 3 But Brazilian Gisele said said: 'Having my hair and make-up done makes me feel like I'm on vacation. 'With a baby, the nights are so short that I've hardly brushed my hair in recent months 'Now that my little one is sleeping through the night, I'm back in control of my rhythm. 'As any new mother knows, it's amazing how much sleep or lack of it can change everything'. Gisele is dating Joaquim Valente. She separated from her American footballer husband Tom Brady in 2022. She has two others with NFL legend Brady. Gisele and the fitness influencer waited until the birth to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl. Who is Gisele Bundshen's boyfriend Joaquim Valente and when is she expecting a child with the jiu jitsu instructor?
Daily Mail
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Jack Grealish's girlfriend Sasha Attwood gives an adorable insight into life with their baby girl after welcoming their first child last year
Jack Grealish 's girlfriend Sasha Attwood has shared a sweet insight into her life as a new mother after giving birth to the couple's first child last year. The model, who has been with the Manchester City star, 28, since they were at high school, posted a look at her daily routine with their baby. After over a decade together, they welcomed their first child, a daughter named Amelia Rose, in September 2024. Now, Sasha has given fans some insight into her daily routine on TikTok, beginning with feeding the little one her bottle. The mother-of-one then revealed that her daughter was in her 'screaming phrase' as she tried to complete some household chores while Amelia was in a baby bounxer. Sasha assured her followers that her little girl was happy in her bouncer and joked she just likes to communicate that way for now. After a quick lunch and skincare, Sasha headed to the gym for a work out session before going to get her nails done. The day ended with the mum and youngster visiting a soft play centre after Amelia woke up from her nap. Sasha then began preparations for a girly night in with her friends. At the time of Amelia's birth, Sasha described it as 'the most special moment of her life'. Amelia's arrival was also celebrated on social media by her footballer father, who wrote on Instagram: 'Mila Rose Grealish 27/09/24'. However, despite the happy occasion of Amelia's birth, Jack described 2024 as one of the hardest years of his life as he fought for his place in Manchester City. This saw him spend more time that he would have liked on the bench instead of on the pitch. It was also the year that saw Jack narrowly miss out on a spot in England's Euro 2024 team. Jack said: 'Last year, the whole year itself, it was weird because my little daughter was born, but apart from that it was one of the most difficult years - probably the most difficult year of my life for many reasons, on and off the pitch.' The Manchester City forward explained: 'I found it really difficult. 'But it's a new year, a sort of fresh start, and hopefully I can kick on from here.' 'I feel like in my last few games that I have played - against Palace, Salford and Orient - I am trying to be involved more in the goals and assists. 'Listen, I want to start playing more often and have that rhythm. 'The way I was a couple of years ago when I was playing a lot of games in a row. 'I do find it difficult at times to come in and out of games, not really playing. Hopefully I can keep training well and playing a few more games.'
Times
16-05-2025
- Health
- Times
Would you take your newborn to stay at a £1,795-a-night spa?
Two weeks after giving birth to my son I check into a luxury hotel room in London and eagerly reveal my boobs to a woman called Pat. 'Let me see your nipples,' she says, which I like for its straightforwardness. Pat is a midwife at the Tenth, a new 'postpartum retreat' at the Mandarin Oriental hotel next to Hyde Park. And like all the other people who have earnestly observed my breasts recently (I have bared them several times at my local community centre and paid a lactation consultant £150 to look at them in my living room), she is helping me to master the art of breastfeeding. Pat props herself up against a unit where a bottle of sparkling fermented tea, two champagne glasses and a complimentary pair of silk pyjamas sit next to a hospital-grade breast pump and a tray of sterilised flanges. I start reeling off my newborn/new mother woes, no doubt classics of the genre. My tiny, hungry baby, Vincent, wants to feed every 45 minutes. My nipples are in agony. After I feed him he seems to cry in pain. The longest stretch of sleep I've had is 90 minutes and at night I am hallucinating in the darkness. What oh what can I do to make it all better? I take Vincent from his shiny new YoYo buggy and show Pat, who is in her mid-fifties and used to work for the NHS, how I feed. She tells me that I need to keep feeding repetitively on the same breast so that he gets to the full-fat hindmilk as well as the skinny foremilk. 'It's like you're giving him endless portions of salad but never letting him have the steak and chips,' she says. Poor little guy. Vincent was born with a heavy dose of drama in late March. I had spent 11 uneventful hours being induced, waiting for a hormone gel the midwives had inserted to send me into active labour. But when my cervix refused to open more than 1cm they administered a second dose — minutes later Vincent's heart rate was plummeting and suddenly I was the subject of a category 1 emergency: mother-to-be on the operating table in under ten minutes. I wasn't sure, after the precariousness of the birth, that I'd make it to the Tenth. A few weeks before my due date it had all sounded very alluring, to stay in a luxury hotel room where I would be served three nutritious meals a day, given a schedule of restorative treatments — massage, reflexology, belly binding, lymphatic drainage — and have access to a roster of specialists in lactation, pelvic-floor therapy and baby massage, like a super-pampered school for new mums. But after the birth it felt somehow facetious, like the whimsy of a pregnant person who didn't know what was about to hit them. After two nights on the postnatal ward James and I returned home and ran on relief and adrenaline for a week. I was floored by the awfulness of C-section recovery in the company of a newborn and finally understood why sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture. And I had so, so many questions. Primarily: 'Is this really what everyone else has quietly been through while I've been having a good time?' • I had postpartum insomnia — here's how I cured it And so, on the 16th day of my son's life, we pull up outside the Mandarin Oriental and hand the keys to our bird poo-covered Renault to a valet. We head through the marble lobby and up to the seventh floor, where the Tenth has moved in, with 15 double rooms, a mothers' lounge and round-the-clock baby nursery. Guests can stay for three, five or seven nights (or longer) for £1,795 a night, making a three-night stay £5,385 and a week £12,565. That includes your room, three meals a day, as much baby care and baby education from the midwives as you want, plus massage, reflexology, breastfeeding support, a therapy session and incision care if you've had a C-section. Partners are welcome to stay, either in the same room or you can pay for an adjoining room. They don't get their meals included though (James ordered Deliveroo). Hiba Siddiqui, the Tenth's British founder, is a former investment banker and businesswoman. When she had her first baby five years ago she had an easy pregnancy, but the postpartum period left her feeling 'very overwhelmed, very isolated and very lonely'. And she's not alone. In the UK about one in ten women suffer from postnatal depression and rates are on the rise. Meanwhile, breastfeeding rates at six to eight weeks postpartum are some of the lowest in the world. • Are women pressured into breastfeeding? This is what our readers think So Siddiqui wondered why there wasn't more support in place for new mothers. She points to cultures where a 40-day period of rest, support and guidance is observed for new mothers, such as in China, Latin America and in her own Pakistani heritage. And she looked to South Korea, where as many as eight in ten women check into postpartum care centres called sanhujoriwon, where they are fed, shown how to care for their newborns, offered facials and left to recover while maternity nurses tend to their babies. More recently these centres have been repackaged as lucrative modern wellness retreats in the US, with the opening of Fourth Trimester in Chicago, Boram in New York, and Sanu in Washington. The Tenth — referring to the tenth month — opened in March and is the first of its kind in the UK, catering to 'local mums prioritising their aftercare', according to Siddiqui, and plenty of wealthy expats. I feel guilty even considering checking Vinnie into the round-the-clock nursery but this doesn't last long. By his third wake that night, at 2am, I break. Maybe just this once? I WhatsApp the nursery and they tell me they'd love to have him. Two women — a midwife and a maternity nurse — welcome my son and a bottle of pumped breastmilk into their baby Zen zone, where the lights are low and there are cots lined up against the wall. I am sheepish but they make me feel as if it is the most natural thing in the world to outsource his care. At 6am, after the most delicious four hours of sleep, I wake up to a message that arrived two hours earlier — was I supposed to be checking? Does this make me look awful? — saying 'Vinnie is very happy and sleeping soundly'. Next to my bed I can use a tablet to watch a live stream of his crib. I will receive some variation of this message — that Vinnie is happy and sleeping soundly — several more times during my stay (look, the nursery is addictive), and I start to wonder whether it's always true or if they're just telling a mother what she wants to hear. Because if it is true, the most beneficial thing I could do at this retreat is not sleep but stay up all night and watch how the nursery wizards do it. Over the next two days I have various in-room appointments — a psychotherapist; a traditional eastern healing session called A Mother's Warming; a lactation therapist. I also learn from the nursery wizards that he is a particularly gassy baby and they show me how to squash his legs up and play him like a fart accordion. It's all very lovely and helpful, if a little 'White Lotus does a postpartum retreat', and I go home feeling a bit more rested — albeit for 48 hours — and better fortified to actually enjoy my sweet little baby boy. So, will the Tenth revolutionise postpartum care? Clearly not at these prices. But do I think that lots of women could benefit from staying in a place where they can recover from childbirth and learn how to mother? Yes. Siddiqui says that the Tenth is 'looking at ways' to bring it to 'all women across all demographics'. Vincent is now eight weeks old and I am overcome with wonder every time I look at him. He's getting smilier and chubbier by the day and I have Pat to thank for that: I never, ever let him go without his steak and chips.
News24
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News24
Skeem Saam's Mogau Keebine speaks on marriage, motherhood, and acting woes
She is nothing like the woman she plays onscreen. Her current storyline on Skeem Saam where she portrays the role of Mapitsi Maputla, is that of a cheating wife, who is having an affair with her colleague, a fellow radio jock, and it this storyline that has sparked a robust debate on social media about women who cheat on their husbands. Unlike her character, seasoned actress Mogau Keebine is happily married, she's just had a baby, and she's gearing to step into season fourteen of the show, which joined since its inception. She exclusively tells Drum all about what being on the show means to her, the demands of being a new mother, a wife, the upsets of being a female in showbiz, and upskilling herself. For the past thirteen years, she's lit up the screen with her magical acting skills, but acting wasn't her first choice, she wanted to become a director, but for some reason she was thrust into the acting scene, and she's loving every minute of it. 'Initially, I wanted to follow in my godfather's footsteps who is former judge, but my drama teacher encouraged me when he told me that I had an interesting way of looking at things, so I changed direction. I wanted to venture into directing, but the acting bug bit me and I haven't looked back since,' she recalls. Having been part of the show since its debut in 2011, Mogau finds that, while being involved for an extended period can occasionally feel monotonous, it has always been a true honor. 'It's been amazing being on the show for the past thirteen seasons, it's my safe place and I absolutely love playing Mapitsi. I've forgotten to know and learn so much from her, and obviously it's amazing to be a part of the show that's not just entertaining, but informative, and educational. I'm honoured to still be a part of such big and impactful show such as Skeem Saam,' she says. Some of the show's ardent viewers have been divided over her current story-line as a cheating wife, who instead of addressing her marital woes, opts for the arms of another man. 'I've been getting such mixed reviews from both men and women. Some men I meet in person or on social media are angry and they tell me that this is not the Mapitsi we know while most women are like, girl get yours, have fun and do what makes you happy,' she chuckles. View this post on Instagram A post shared by MogauPM (@mogaupm) Her stance on cheating is very clear, she's dead set against it and opposes it in the strongest terms. 'I don't condone cheating of anyone, men or women in any kind of way, whether it's emotional or physical. I honestly feel like it's such an immature and disrespectful thing to do. There are better ways of resolving issues than to fall into the arms of someone else, no matter masculine they are,' she quips. While her onscreen marriage seems to be in shambles, Mogau is a gone girl, who is off the market. 'I've been married for a couple of years now, and I'm very happily married. I just hope we won't one day have to deal with the drama that Mapitsi is dealing with,' the star says she giggles. Being a woman in showbiz is not as favourable as it is for men, and this she knows first hand. 'Women are subjected to unfair treatment, especially when they are pregnant, they have to take maternity leave, which means taking a financial break. I recently had a baby, and fortunately I was able to shoot or work until one month before giving birth. I then had to go on maternity leave and there are implications with that. Men don't have to go through the same challenges. It's difficult in this industry where your looks are so linked to your work,' she explains. Read more | EXCLUSIVE | 'It feels like spiritual rebirth' – Gogo Skhotheni gets baptised on 33rd birthday The recent spate of actors and some sports personalities sharing their struggles on social media has been a stark reminder of just brutal the industry really is, as it remains unregulated meaning that actors don't accrue benefits such as medical aids and pension funds. 'I wish we could have benefits such as medical aids, pension funds, so that if someone needs medical attention, they can easily get access to medical care. It's sad that we don't have such benefits. I'm upskilling myself in other spheres of the industry such as directing and producing, it's sad that some people can't,' she concludes.
