One of the reasons people are so fascinated with the Royal Family is that its members feel like they walked out of a children’s fairytale. After all, we all grow up hearing stories about kind kings, handsome princes, and princesses who want nothing more than to live “happily ever after.” Since people like Kate Middleton (a princess who will one day be a queen) are basically living out everyone else’s fairytale dreams, it’s hard to think of royals as experiencing the hardships that the rest of us face.
However, Kate found out the hard way that pregnancy is the great equalizer. She has had three children, and each of her pregnancies was wildly difficult. Along the way, she faced all the confusion of a new mother, along with scary incidents, including getting hospitalized and diagnosed with a frightening condition. What are the shocking health issues Kate Middleton experienced during pregnancy?
Keep reading to find out!
Pregnancy reminded Kate Middleton of her limitations
From the outside looking in, it’s easy to assume that Kate Middleton would have had relatively easy pregnancies. After all, she is fabulously wealthy and can buy the best for herself and her children, including top-notch childcare. But Kate soon discovered the one thing that money couldn’t buy: helping her deal with the unpredictable stresses of motherhood!
As reported by Vogue, Kate was quite candid about the fact that she, like all new mothers, didn’t know exactly what she was supposed to do. Eventually, she made peace with the fact that she would have to figure everything out as she went. “There is no rule book, no right or wrong; you just have to make it up and do the very best you can to care for your family,” she said in 2017.
Despite the fact that she has a loving husband and an extended family of fellow royals, Kate also discovered how lonely being a new mother could feel. According to the Daily Mail, she spoke quite bluntly about how motherhood left her emotionally reeling. “It is lonely at times. You do feel quite isolated,” she confessed.
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A royally bad case of morning sickness
So far, we have focused on Kate Middleton’s psychological and emotional state when she was pregnant with her first baby. While it’s sad that she felt that way, her feelings aren’t necessarily unique…as we said above, they are things most new mothers face. However, Kate had to deal with something very unique during all three of her pregnancies: the worst morning sickness on the planet!
You see, Kate suffers from a condition known as hyperemesis gravidarum. This is a very severe form of morning sickness, one that leads to so much vomiting that those who suffer from it are in danger of losing weight. If that’s not scary enough, this condition can even lead to babies being born prematurely! Thanks to this condition, Kate was understandably scared for each of her children while she was pregnant. And hyperemesis gravidarum even sent Kate to the hospital at one point, forcing her to disclose her pregnancy during a time she would have been all too happy to keep it hidden!
The pregnancy that sent Kate to the hospital
One thing about the Royal Family is that they don’t like anyone to know their private business, especially when it comes to medical matters. Kate Middleton is no exception: when she was diagnosed with cancer, the royals reportedly used all manner of tricks to keep this news under wraps. This included sharing Photoshopped images to imply that the future queen was alive and well. However, Kate couldn’t keep the news about her first pregnancy a secret because her hyperemesis gravidarum ended up sending her to the hospital!
During her first pregnancy, Kate had to be hospitalized, and she spent several long days staying at London’s King Edward VII hospital. Begrudgingly, the royal palace simply told the world that she was placed in the hospital due to “acute morning sickness.” They also kept her exact treatment a secret, but now that we know Kate was suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, she was most likely given IV fluids to combat the dehydration (an unfortunate consequence of all the vomiting).
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Why Kate Middleton’s pregnancy issues were so surprising
To the general public, Kate Middleton’s pregnancy health issues were shocking for a couple of reasons. The first, as we mentioned in the beginning, is that the average person doesn’t expect a senior member of the Royal Family to get sick. Kate was busy living out every little girl’s “happily ever after” fairy tale dream, and barfing so much she had to get hospitalized definitely isn’t part of that dream!
The other surprising aspect of Kate’s pregnancy issues is that she was so open to talking about them. After being hospitalized ruined the surprise of her first pregnancy, Kate began speaking very openly about the physical and mental toll that getting pregnant had on her body and mind. And she even put her money where her mouth is by becoming a patron of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance. In this way, she’s doing her part to help young mothers who, like Kate, found the experience of motherhood to be overwhelming.