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From Molly-Mae to Paloma Faith: celebrity mums share the realities of labour and birth

From Molly-Mae to Paloma Faith: celebrity mums share the realities of labour and birth

Emergency C-sections, ventouse deliveries and postpartum surprises – famous mums share the messy but magical realities of labour.

Denise Marshall

Published: March 10, 2026 at 12:41 PM

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2026 is proving to be a year of females in the spotlight spreading empowerment, showcasing enormous strength, and smashing taboos, by speaking candidly about their bodies and relationships.

The campaign to improve maternity care by former Made in Chelsea star Louise Thompson, and Conservative MP, Theo Clarke, is no exception. Harnessing their platforms to demand change, the pair led a protest in early February at the Houses of Parliament to appoint a maternity commissioner, after decades of women’s health being sidelined and underfunded.

And while reading about difficult births can be daunting, it is important to note one baby is genuinely born every minute in the UK!

The majority are healthy, with thriving happy mums. And as you start the wild rollercoaster ride that is parenting, celebrities sharing real relatable stories is an almighty boost.

Love Island star Molly-Mae Hague, currently pregnant for the second time, has revealed how she enjoyed the vacuum-assisted delivery of daughter Bambi by ventouse.

"I loved the pushing. I loved it because of my epidural. My epidural made me enjoy my labour - I would do it again in a heartbeat.

"I could feel Bambi's head coming out. I had this sensation her head was sliding out of me, but I couldn't feel any pain. It was incredible."

Twenty-one active hours of labour, an emergency C-section that resulted in me not being able to walk properly for three months, and the exhaustion was ridiculous.

Paloma Faith

Chart-topping artist, Paloma Faith is one of the most honest voices in the entertainment world. Despite enduring a complicated birth with her first daughter she is expecting her third baby, calling her pregnancy a “miracle” aged 44, and positively gorgeous and glowing.

Five years ago, she posted a much-needed powerful statement; “Twenty-one active hours of labour, an emergency C-section that resulted in me not being able to walk properly for three months, and the exhaustion was ridiculous. Add on a new-born baby piranha setting my nipples on fire and a uterine infection and you’ve got a memory you will never forget!

“Not enough women are prepared for the realities of childbirth and postpartum…It’s time to challenge the social media perfection posts – let’s start sharing what really goes down!”

Wise words indeed, and with the trend of over 40s conceiving, one of the most recent celebrity arrivals in January was for Downton Abbey actress Michelle Dockery, a first-time mum at the age of 44.

Michelle Dockery attending the Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale world premiere

Michelle Dockery attending the Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale world premiere in September 2025. Photo by Neil Mockford/WireImage

All Saints’ Nicole Appleton is now 51 and has a 24-year-old son, Gene and six-year-old daughter, Skipper. She has recently spoken about how Gene’s pregnancy and birth was the easiest ever.

“Gene was tiny, 5lb 13oz. I didn’t want to tell anyone that because I’ve heard all the horrors,” she admitted.

With females designed for the miraculous journey of new life, famous birth stories continue to fascinate, and we take comfort in the fact that birth isn’t textbook.

TV personality and businesswoman Samantha Faiers, 35, has had three very different deliveries. During her first she was forced to abandon a home birth and rushed to hospital after her baby’s heart rate dropped. Free of complications, her daughter was filmed being born in a birthing pool two years later, but for her third child she had a primal instinct to leave the water and retreat to the kitchen.

Samantha Faiers kissing her baby son at launch event

Samantha Faiers and baby Edward in 2022. Photo by Lia Toby/Getty Images for AFB)

“Paul, (her partner), was standing behind me… I was putting all my weight on to him. I was squatting a little bit and the midwife came underneath ready to catch the baby. Little Paul and Rosie were next to me and I gave birth standing up.”

Coleen Rooney is the proud mother to four sports mad sons and close to her family, she made the deeply personal decision to have both her parents present in the delivery room, when firstborn Kai made his entrance.

“Wayne and my Dad were at the top end holding my hands, and my mum was down the bottom with the midwife.”

American comedian Amy Shumer is another passionate advocate for keeping the labour conversation flowing. Amy endured a very long c-section delivering her son, due to complications with endometriosis. Despite finding aspects of childbirth “terrifying,” she nevertheless found it, “gratifying” and “empowering.”

Amy is also one of the few celebrities to also talk about her baby’s failure to latch on. Many who wish to, cannot breastfeed for long, an area of immense angst, but hearing about a healthy newborn failing to latch even once, is a huge help to women in the same boat.

Kim Kardashian and Molly-Mae Hague pregnant

Images: Getty

Despite Kim Kardashian’s daily dose of glamour, you have to love her for not shying away from the realities of manual placenta extraction. Often a section, or the whole placenta, can get stuck, and after delivering daughter North, Kim’s doctor had to remove it by, ”sticking his whole arm inside,” a slightly more common occurrence in labour wards across the globe than you might like to think!

Likewise, body goddess Jennifer Lopez has revealed the shock at her ‘flabby belly hanging out right after I gave birth.’ Again, completely normal when you’ve been carrying a small person weighing the same as a Christmas turkey! But like the miracle of the human body, it’s created to shrink, and not swing quite so furiously a few weeks post-partum.

I’d imagined a chilled birth with low lighting and lovely music, but the reality was very different....

Sophie Ellis Bextor

Singer Sophie Ellis Bextor’s childbirth journey is another inspiring tale. She developed pre-eclampsia in her first two pregnancies requiring emergency c-sections and her babies whisked to NICU (neonatal intensive care), which doctors assured her was bad luck. She went on to have another three children.

“I’d imagined a chilled birth with low lighting and lovely music, but the reality was very different. We've, (husband Richard), grown up together really, and going through those two traumatic births definitely brought us even closer together.”

She recently revealed how a consultant caught her off-guard while expecting her fifth son, asking if she wanted to be sterilised straight after her c-section aged 39. Shocked, she declined.

While the experiences of Louise Thompson and Theo Clarke’s birth traumas are absolutely heartrending, it’s important to note how many complex deliveries are handled with the utmost professionalism by dedicated angel staff.

No one knows this more than Amanda Holden who has bravely commended her NHS medical team for saving her life, after she suffered a severe haemorrhage giving birth to youngest daughter Hollie.

Hollie’s birth came a year after her son Theo was stillborn. Amanda has remained close friends with the medical team and has poignantly revealed she feels privileged that Theo chose her to carry him.

“I’ll literally do anything for the National Health Service because they got me through it, they got (husband) Chris through it and I now thankfully have two healthy girls and a little boy who is still part of the family but just not here.”

Childbirth definitely shouldn’t be a lottery, and when celebrity mums speak out, women are not only showered with support, but reminded that birth doesn’t need to be a fairytale experience, just safe and dignified.

Authors

Denise Marshall