This will resonate with parents everywhere.
By Bella Brennan
When former My Kitchen Rules star Ash Pollard welcomed her first child, a beautiful baby girl called Clementine, with her partner Pete in September, she never could have imagined just how much her world was going to change.
From the sleepless nights to the enormous surge of love, Ash tells Now To Love the arrival of her daughter has been the ultimate perspective shake-up.
"I have to say, I was a pretty selfish person before I had a kid," she tells us.
"I kept thinking to myself: 'Oh god, now I'm going to have to spend money on nappies and I won't be able to buy those Scanlan shoes.' I mean, what an absolute moron! My life has been put into perspective and I couldn't be more grateful."
Indeed the arrival of a newborn means you're now reporting in to a tiny yet adorable dictator who needs to be fed, burped and changed around the clock.
It's a taxing job like no other and trying to function on skerricks of broken sleep can make anyone snappy at the best of time. Ash and her partner Pete, who have been together since 2017, are no exception.
Opening up about clashing with your partner when you're both trying your best to trouble-shoot a screaming baby in the middle of the night, Ash has some sage words of wisdom that will relate to sleep-deprived parents everywhere.
"Know that you will fight with your partner and it will be World War Three. You will feel like splitting up a hundred times. And you'll want to file for that divorce about a thousand times but it's normal and it will pass," she candidly admits.
"You don't want to wish the weeks away but at the same time, you know that with each week, it gets easier," she adds.
"I think from a female perspective, guys will try and understand and it's tough for them. The baby is completely and utterly reliant on the mother if you're breastfeeding," she points out.
"I kind of reckon that there were times that Pete was like 'this is hard.' And the only way he could express that was through getting mad at me. But I had to be sympathetic to the fact that he probably would be feeling a little bit left out."
"He's amazing! I have absolutely no qualms of leaving her with him. I trust him implicitly. He's a great dad," she enthuses.
"She's divine! She's so neat. I haven't had any [poo] blow-outs and she doesn't vomit at all. She's just this neat little thing that goes about her day," Ash raves of her baby.
It's this all-consuming love for her little one that inspired Ash to team up with Cell Care to help raise awareness around the importance of storing your baby's cord blood and cord tissue.
These stem cells can be used for medical treatments in the future, like leukaemia.
There are also a whole host of new studies currently being researched exploring the use of cord blood and tissue to help with cerebral palsy, autism and type 1 diabetes.
"It's slightly expensive but the insurance behind it is priceless," Ash explains of the service, which costs around $6,595 for about 30 years of storage.
"If you've got the resources you may as well invest in it. It is pricey but if I ever had to use the service, and I hope that I never have to, but if I have to it'd be amazing," she says.
From a practical point of view, Ash says the process, which she used at Clementine's birth, couldn't have been easier to navigate.
"You just call Cell Care when you're in active labour, then they pretty much check in with the hospital or your partner throughout the labour just to see how close you are because obviously they need to be there for the birth [to collect the cord blood and tissue.]"
"Props to all the people who have a birth plan. If you're having your first child and you're going in with a birth plan, I understand because it's frightening. At the same time, I'm a bit of a realist. You cannot plan a birth," the mother-of-one tells us, before revealing she had to be induced and ended up having an emergency C-section.
"I was induced because I had really bad symptoms for pre-eclampsia. So they induced me and over about 24-hours, I just wasn't dilating. So come the 22nd hour, they said 'oh look you're going to have to have an emergency C-section," Ash reflects.
"If I had of gone in with a birth plan, I would have been bitterly disappointed because I ended up having an emergency C-section. More to the point, I wasn't able to do anything naturally I had to be induced, I had to have my waters broken manually. None of what I experienced in my birth was natural. It was all done by the doctors and I'm grateful for what they did," she admits.
"As horrific as it was, it was a seamless birth in the end really. I wasn't too posh to push or anything like that, it was an emergency C-section."
Describing the operation as "gross" Ash says: "I actually yelled over the curtains: 'F-----g sew me up.' It feels like they're rifling around, you can feel it. And when they push on you after to get all the stuff out? The things we go through, I tell you!"
And the post-op recovery was just as gruelling.
"You can't even enjoy your newborn to the full potential because you can hardly pick them up, it hurts," Ash reflects.
But Ash says she's keen to protect Clementine from the harsh world of social media for now.
"I definitely want to share her but at the same time, I'm also mindful of her and that she doesn't have a voice. I sometimes grapple with putting her up on a platform where eighty-thousand people follow me and some people are real bullies."
"I read things about myself that are horrible and I've learnt to get over it but if I ever read anything horrible about my child, I'd be wild. I'd be absolutely beside myself and I don't want to put her in that position at such a young age. I don't really think it's fair," she notes.
"In saying that, I will share her. I'm not in a rush to! I'm just drinking her in at the moment."
Continue reading here:
Ash Pollard's wise words on navigating the newborn trenches - Now To Love
- One year to test 200 Cordlife samples 'totally unjustified': Global cord blood banking experts - The Straits Times - April 15th, 2024
- Clinical trial: First cardiac bioimplants for treatment of myocardial infarction using umbilical cord stem cells - Medical Xpress - April 7th, 2024
- The umbilical cord: a rich and ethical stem cell source to advance ... - March 30th, 2024
- Story of discovery: getting a Notch up on cord blood cell ... - March 30th, 2024
- Cord Blood Transplants | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center - March 30th, 2024
- Therapeutic effect and study of human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells in patients with ischaemic bowel ... - Nature.com - March 17th, 2024
- Global Cord Blood & Tissue Banking Industry Report 2024: The Vast Majority of the Global Cord Blood Market is Now ... - PR Newswire - March 15th, 2024
- Improving Transplant Outcomes and Cell Therapy Approaches - RegMedNet - March 9th, 2024
- The inhibition of ADAM17 in cord blood stem cell-derived CD16+ NK cells to enhance their cytotoxicity against acute ... - ScienceDirect.com - March 1st, 2024
- Beating Blood Cancer through Recycling - a Community crowdfunding project in Liverpool by Kate Williams - Crowdfunder UK - February 24th, 2024
- Cord Blood Registry (CBR ) by CooperSurgical and Fulgent Genetics Launch Innovative Genetic Testing - Investing.com Canada - February 9th, 2024
- Young cancer patient with 'no hope' of recovery saved by baby's umbilical cord - Study Finds - February 9th, 2024
- Global Cord Blood & Tissue Banking Industry Report 2024 - The Vast Majority of the Global Cord Blood Market is Now ... - ACROFAN - January 26th, 2024
- Finding the optimal combination of anticancer drug administration for the conditioning of cord blood transplantation - Medical Xpress - January 26th, 2024
- Cord Blood Banking Market Sales and Revenue Report 2023-2032 - WhaTech Technology and Markets News - January 26th, 2024
- Global Cord Blood & Tissue Banking Industry Report 2024 - The Vast Majority of the Global Cord Blood Market is Now ... - ACROFAN USA - January 24th, 2024
- Global Biobanking Market Size To Exceed USD 97.5 Billion By 2032 | CAGR of 5.8% - GlobeNewswire - January 24th, 2024
- The use of cryopreservation in life saving research - The Manufacturer - January 24th, 2024
- CD19-targeted CAR NK cell therapy achieves promising one-year results in patients with B-cell malignancies - Medical Xpress - January 18th, 2024
- Cord blood banking comes at a high cost to babies - STAT - STAT - January 18th, 2024
- Global Cord Blood and Tissue Banking Industry Gains Traction Amidst Surging M&A Activity and Technological Advances - PR Newswire - January 16th, 2024
- Donating Bone Marrow and Stem Cells: The Process and What To Expect - On Cancer - Memorial Sloan Kettering - January 11th, 2024
- Ask the doctors: Research being conducted on using stem cells to treat diabetes - The Spokesman Review - January 4th, 2024
- askST: Can cord blood units be transferred from one bank to another? - The Straits Times - December 27th, 2023
- Timeline: Cordlife's mishandling of cord blood units in Singapore - CNA - December 15th, 2023
- Next-Level Evolution: Enhancing the Human Body With Anthrobots ... - Securities.io - December 5th, 2023
- Fred Hutch at ASH: Gene therapies for sickle cell, how to improve ... - Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center - December 5th, 2023
- Enhancing the immunosuppressive properties of human umbilical ... - Phys.org - December 1st, 2023
- Global Status and Trends for Thromboangiitis Obliterans | JPR - Dove Medical Press - December 1st, 2023
- Early Stage Cell Therapy Trial Shows Promise in Treating Progressive Multiple Sclerosis - University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus - December 1st, 2023
- Global Medical Specialty Bag Market is Expected to Reach US$ 9.4 Billion by 2034, Rising at a Steady 4.7% CAGR | Future Market Insights, Inc. - Yahoo... - November 29th, 2023
- Repeated concussions can alter heart activity and impact the heart ... - Philippine Canadian Inquirer - November 29th, 2023
- Vita 34 increases revenue and earnings in Q3 2023 and further ... - PharmiWeb.com - November 27th, 2023
- Vita 34 increases revenue and earnings in Q3 2023 and further ... - Marketscreener.com - November 25th, 2023
- FY 2021 VA-Funded Projects - VA's Office of Research and Development - November 25th, 2023
- New study aims to expand access to stem cell transplant using ... - Healio - November 23rd, 2023
- Impact of GVHD Prophylaxis on CMV Reactivation and Disease ... - Cancer Network - November 23rd, 2023
- The Top 25 Women Leaders in Biotechnology of 2023 - The Healthcare Technology Report. - November 21st, 2023
- First Edition: November 20, 2023 - KFF Health News - November 21st, 2023
- An essential guide to the building blocks of life - Gates Notes - November 21st, 2023
- A Simple Way to Save Premature Babies - The New York Times - November 19th, 2023
- Perspectives of current understanding and therapeutics of Diamond ... - Nature.com - November 17th, 2023
- Brain Organoids: Should They Be Considered People? - BBVA OpenMind - November 17th, 2023
- Understanding the cause of childhood Alzheimer's - ASBMB Today - November 17th, 2023
- Peripheral nerve regeneration through nanofiber scaffolds | IJN - Dove Medical Press - November 15th, 2023
- Are STEM CELL EXOSOMES the secret to a 'snatched' jawline? Discover the products that influencers are claiming - Daily Mail - November 13th, 2023
- CAR-NK: The next generation in hematological malignancy treatment - News-Medical.Net - November 13th, 2023
- Regenerative Medicine | Top Regenerative Medicine Solution ... - Healthcare Tech Outlook - November 13th, 2023
- Stem cell therapy, emerging solution to slow down ageing - Punch Newspapers - November 13th, 2023
- Improving Cord Blood Transplantation Outcomes for Adults With ... - On Cancer - Memorial Sloan Kettering - November 11th, 2023
- 8 Ways To Save Lives With Canadian Blood Services & You Can ... - Narcity Canada - November 11th, 2023
- Internal investigation by Vita 34 AG reveals irregularities related to a ... - Marketscreener.com - November 11th, 2023
- 'We worried the worst would happen' - Yorkshire Children's Trust ... - The Yorkshire Post - November 11th, 2023
- Minor GPI(-) granulocyte populations in aplastic anemia and healthy ... - Nature.com - November 9th, 2023
- Repeated treatment with ProTrans is immunologically safe ... - Marketscreener.com - November 7th, 2023
- Affimed Announces Oral Presentation of Phase 1/2 Data from AFM13 in Combination with Allogeneic NK Cells - Benzinga - November 7th, 2023
- Health Canada issues warning on cord blood stored in Edmonton - CBC News - November 3rd, 2023
- Affimed Announces Oral Presentation of Phase 1/2 Data from AFM13 in Combination with Allogeneic NK Cells at the 2023 ASH Annual Meeting - Yahoo... - November 3rd, 2023
- Dynamic Stem Cell Therapy Uncovers Research in Advance ... - InvestorsObserver - November 3rd, 2023
- Go with the flow and achieve hearing restoration - Drug Discovery News - November 3rd, 2023
- Cell Therapy Market to Witness Exponential Growth by 2031 ... - Argyle Report - November 1st, 2023
- Cross-talk between Myeloid and B Cells Shapes the Distinct ... - Cancer Discovery - November 1st, 2023
- Comparison of effects of HucMSCs, exosomes, and conditioned ... - Nature.com - October 28th, 2023
- The structural and functional complexity of the integrative ... - Science - October 28th, 2023
- Global Primary Cells Market to Witness Growth at 11.41% CAGR to ... - GlobeNewswire - October 26th, 2023
- Hma-Qubec celebrates 25 years of giving life in anniversary ad - - The Message - October 26th, 2023
- Improvement of thermal-stability of chondroitinase ABCI immobilized ... - Nature.com - October 26th, 2023
- Sydney Couple Overcomes Sperm Antibody Issue to Welcome Baby - OPP.Today - October 24th, 2023
- New Research Reveals Surprising Issue with Sperm and Fertility - CityLife - October 24th, 2023
- Biobanking Market to Observe Prominent CAGR of 6.10% by 2029 ... - PharmiWeb.com - October 21st, 2023
- TV shows like BBC's Call The Midwife and C4's One Born Every Minute 'are inaccurately depicting childbirth' an - Daily Mail - October 19th, 2023
- Advances in medical and technological research and SCI - Clyde & Co - October 18th, 2023
- Prognostic Value of Hematogones in Patients With Hematopoietic ... - Cureus - October 18th, 2023
- Stem-Cell Therapy: Filling Gaps in Oro-Maxillofacial Region - Cureus - October 18th, 2023
- The neonatal southern white rhinoceros ovary contains oogonia in ... - Nature.com - October 18th, 2023
- OMG: Sperm injury led to rare baby struggle - news.com.au - October 18th, 2023
- Experts Explain how MS Impacts the Eyes and Eye Health - Health Central - October 18th, 2023
- Newly identified stem cells can lure breast cancer to the spine - Science News Magazine - October 15th, 2023
- Cases of HIV cure | aidsmap - aidsmap - October 15th, 2023
- HokUS-10 scoring system predicts the treatment outcome for ... - Nature.com - October 13th, 2023
Recent Comments