Kate Middleton. Photo: Getty
The Duchess of Cambridge has never been one to share too many details about her life with the public – but she made an exception during an appearance on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast recently, chatting with host Giovanna Fletcher about the joys (and considerable anxieties) that come with motherhood.
After admitting that she felt “equally as nervous” as Fletcher about the interview, the Duchess revealed that for her the secret of parenting lies in celebrating everyday moments. “Life now is so busy, so distracting,” explained Kate, who was there to support her Five Big Questions On The Under Fives survey, designed to create more and better support for parents in need of help. “Sometimes the simple things like watching a fire on a really rainy day provide such enjoyment.” She reiterated that message on Instagram on Saturday night, sharing a personal image of Princess Charlotte. “I’ve got this one photo of Charlotte smelling a bluebell, and really for me it’s moments like that [that] mean so much to me as a parent,” she told Fletcher. “I try every day to put moments like that in, even if they’re small or even if I don’t have time.”
Yet, the Duchess admitted that while she loved motherhood, she also struggled with “mum guilt”. “Yes, absolutely,” she said when asked whether she sometimes feels torn between parenting and her other responsibilities. “All the time… Even this morning, George and Charlotte were like, ‘Mummy, how could you possibly not be dropping us off at school this morning?’ No, it’s a constant challenge.”
Of course, for the Duchess, the challenges of motherhood began during pregnancy, when hyperemesis left her feeling “utterly rotten”. It was through battling chronic morning sickness, however, that she claims she discovered “the power of the mind over the body”, which ultimately led her to decide to hypnobirth all three of her children. “I saw the power of it really, the meditation and the deep breathing and things like that, that they teach you in hypnobirthing, when I was really sick,” she said, before adding, “I’m not going to say that William was standing there chanting sweet nothings at me. He definitely wasn’t!” Another notable admission? “It had been so bad during pregnancy, I actually really quite liked labour,” Kate said with a laugh.
Then again, she did find the act of presenting a newborn Prince George outside of the Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital to be “slightly terrifying”, acknowledging that the Duke of Cambridge had even practiced strapping a baby doll into a car seat ahead of the event. “It was quite hard to do that on the world’s stage [for the first time]…”
The Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast with the Duchess of Cambridge is available to listen to in full now.
Originally published on Vogue.co.uk
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