We keep hearing about how giving birth in your forties has become the new norm in Singapore. There has been a lot of discussion and debate on how unhealthy it is as a trend. But did you know that we have a few Singapore celebrity mums like Fann Wong, Stefanie Sun and more who got pregnant and gave birth in their 40s?
Let's check out whether such mums like Stefanie Sun, Leelian Chua, Constance Song, Carole Lin, Jamie Yeo, Fann Wong and Zoe Tay had a hassle-free experience while pregnant:
Stefanie Sun
Stefanie Sun gave birth to her Baby No. 2 on 25 July 2018, two days after her 40th birthday.
Apparently Stefanie decided to go for Baby No. 2 because her five-year-old son badly wanted a sibling. He even complained often that, "mummy’s stomach was not getting bigger as she did not eat enough.” (So cute!)
Sun being Sun, not much is known about the difficulties she faced during her late pregnancy. Except for the occasional comment about "becoming as fat as two people".
Jamie Yeo
Jamie Yeo had a late second pregnancy at 40, and there were complications in the latter half. Her water bag started leaking at 30 weeks, and she was put on bed rest in the hospital for a month. She gave birth to a baby boy, Luke, on 29 August 2017, "A little early at 35 weeks, but healthy and at a respectable 2.35 kg."
Luke is a half-brother to Jamie’s daughter Alysia, from her previous marriage to Thorston Nolte.
Leelian Chua
Love 97.2 radio DJ, Leelian Chua had a baby boy on June 5, 2017. Chua had got married in late 2016.
According to Today, she said that her first trimester had been rather difficult, with appetite issues due to gastric pains. She also reported feeling lethargic during the day, and unable to sleep well at night.
Despite the hurdles of an older, high-risk pregnancy, she has been quoted as not completely ruling out a second pregnancy, “My siblings were a lot older than me, so I felt quite lonely then, but conceiving at my age might bring a lot of complications, so we will let nature take its course.”
Constance Song
Constance Song, star of the English TV series Tanglin, gave birth to her baby girl on May 18, 2017. It also happens to be Constance's birthday!
The actress became a mum and went through pregnancy at a relatively older age – 42.
She is enjoying being mummy to her little princess now. She tells 8 Days, " I am trying to enjoy every minute [of motherhood]. It’s a joy seeing my daughter grow up."
Zoe Tay
The Queen of Caldecott Hill and Singaporeans' favourite "Ah-Jie", Zoe Tay had a totally unplanned third pregnancy, at age 42, in year 2010. She ended up giving birth to her third son Nathan Chionh prematurely after she experienced some bleeding due to a blood clot. Nathan was a C-section baby and the very first Caesarean section for mummy Zoe.
Fann Wong
Gorgeous actress Fann Wong got pregnant and became a mum for the very first time at age 43, five years into her marriage with actor Christopher Lee. After several hours of labour, the baby's head had still not descended and Fann had to opt for a C- section as well.
Baby Zed Lee was born in 2014, and shares his birthday with Singapore - 9th of August! Fann had said later that year that she wanted to try for a daughter next, "I'll let nature take its course. It's not like I am planning for it, but it's definitely a wish of ours. For now, we are engrossed in our 'Baby Zed World'."
Speculations that Fann Wong might be pregnant again were made in 2015 when the celebrity couple put up a picture on their respective Instagram accounts of Chris hugging Fann from behind, with both their hands placed on her tummy. But reports have shown that Christopher has denied it when asked if Zed (the couple's made-in-Singapore son) is going to be a big brother soon.
Carole Lin
Actress Carole Lin became mum at age 42, and her daughter Brooklyn is an SG 50 baby! Carole had previously wanted to give birth to her baby naturally and without the use of any pain relief drugs. However, the amniotic fluid level decreased drastically a couple of days before her delivery, and she had to go in for an emergency C-section.
This experience it seems traumatised the actress. She has been quoted as saying to The New Paper, “Due to the anaesthetic given to me, I panicked when, the day after, I still could not feel my legs. I was really scared, worried that I had become paralysed. I started to shiver and tremble, and it felt like I was out of breath. It was only after a day that I regained feeling in the lower half of my body."
(Source: Today, The New Paper)
Also READ: Is a healthy pregnancy possible for women over 40?