Mail Online

Baby wants another baby – but fears it might be too late

By Jane Wharton

BABY SPICE Emma Bunton today reveals she has entered the transition stage before the menopause – and faces a race against time to have another child.

In an interview with The Mail on Sunday’s You magazine, the 45-yearold says she delayed trying to get pregnant due to the pandemic but ‘cried her eyes out’ when she discovered it might now be too late to become a mother for a third time.

Describing the symptoms of perimenopause – the body’s natural transition towards the menopause –she says: ‘I started to feel unbalanced and anxious.

‘At first I put it down to the pandemic. But then the anxiety became more regular, until it was daily. I was also lethargic. Something wasn’t right. I looked up the symptoms and saw I had quite a few.

‘So I spoke to someone on Zoom who came to the same conclusion. I was perimenopausal.’

Ms Bunton, the mother of Beau, 13, and Tate, ten, with long-term partner Jade Jones, adds: ‘I thought, “Is this the end?”

‘It’s been a very weird time. I’m a very mumsy person – when I see my friends’ babies, I always become broody. But now I thought, “OK, this is it.” ’

She is now on a low dose of hormone replacement therapy and is undecided about having a third baby. Describing a Spice Girls tour of the US and Canada in 2007 just weeks after Beau was born, she recalls: ‘Physically, my body wasn’t ready to be doing two-hour shows every night. Your hips don’t move the way they should, I fell over a couple of times backstage. I cried at everything, my skin broke out in rashes.

‘I said to our physio “What’s going on?” and he laughed, “What do you mean? You just had a baby!” ’

Nowadays she juggles work commitments around the school run, but credits Jade, the former lead singer of R&B band Damage, for her continued success.

‘He makes everything calm. He’s sacrificed a lot,’ she says.

WHENEVER I buy anything online – even a pint of milk – I am sent an infuriating follow-up ‘how did we do’ survey request. Don’t these firms realise that if I’m unhappy, I’d contact them pronto anyway? Except you can’t get through by phone. They’re too busy sending out stupid surveys.

NOBEL Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai is a remarkable young woman. Yet there’s something uncomfortable about such a potent symbol of feminism and freedom appearing this month on the cover of Vogue magazine, which celebrities use as a vehicle for their own vanity.

WHEN asked about the whole Harry and Meghan debacle, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie simply joked: ‘Oprah who?’ and ‘What interview?’ Perhaps the sanest response to date.

SURELY the reason middle-aged women are most likely to suffer ‘long Covid’ is less down to their age and sex and more due to them not taking enough time off to recover, and continuing with family chores – unlike men who generally make champion convalescents.

China In The Dock

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2021-06-06T07:00:00.0000000Z

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https://mailonline.pressreader.com/article/282248078492445

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