Jamelia recently welcomed her fourth daughter into the world – as she says, she’s now got her “own girl group” – and now, the singer has candidly shared how ‘incredibly traumatic’ the labour really was.
Earlier this month (4 October), the former Loose Women presenter and iconic ‘Superstar’ singer gave birth to a baby girl (name yet to be revealed) via an emergency caesarean section. Jamelia has since told the story of her “scary” birth, starting with her waters breaking at 32 weeks pregnant, and then going on to give birth one month later – yep, one whole month after.
In a new interview with Hello!, the mum of four described the experience in candid detail.
“I felt like I was in labour for a month, but the main objective was to keep the baby in for as long as possible. I just had to hold on,” she said.
Four weeks on from her waters first breaking, Jamelia’s midwives at Birmingham Women’s Hospital discovered the baby’s heart rate had dropped dramatically, and made the decision to induce labour.
“I’d only ever seen a C-section on the telly, and thought: ‘Oh well, at least it’s going to be straightforward and I’ll be out in five minutes’,” the 41-year-old said. “There’s this idea of ‘too posh to push’, that it’s the easier option. But I found it incredibly traumatic. And then you’re recovering from major surgery while looking after a newborn.”
There continues to be damaging stigma surrounding C-sections - like Jamelia put it, the 'too posh to push' narrative is really uninformed of the serious reality - and people who give birth in this way can be labelled negatively. Still, alongside Jamelia, other celebrities have opened up about their experiences of a C-section birth. Beyoncé spoke about her difficult labour with her twins Rumi and Sur in June 2017. Kate Winslet and Serena Willaims have also opened up about their experiences with recovery after C-sections.
At Jamelia’s side during the labour was her 17-year-old daughter Tiani, who won a coin toss with her older sister Teja, 21, to see who would be the birthing partner. Jamelia’s husband stayed at home with the couple's younger daughter, True, aged four.
“As selfish as it might sound, I wanted to share this experience with my girls,” she added.
Despite her difficult experience with welcoming baby number four into the world, Jamelia called her newborn her “easiest and most straightforward” baby to date. “She’s a good communicator, very chilled and has seamlessly imprinted herself onto the family. It’s been a dream to have her,” Jamelia said.
Jamelia continued to say how motherhood has been her “greatest blessing”.
“Being a mother to four daughters feels like the most incredible gift. I feel so fortunate to have had pregnancies in my teens, twenties, thirties and now my forties. It’s been my greatest blessing to experience motherhood at all these different times and being able to learn at different stages of my life.”
Congratulations Jamelia and family - you’re a superstar!
