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Princess Beatrice Steps Up Prematurity Advocacy With Candid Podcast and Lab Visits

She draws on her daughter's early arrival to push for better research funding.

Overview

  • Marking World Prematurity Day, Beatrice released a special episode of The Borne Podcast on Nov. 17, saying learning a baby will arrive early "can be incredibly lonely."
  • As patron of Borne, she is fronting the Every Week Counts campaign with a tour of research labs at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and a London event bringing together researchers and families.
  • The campaign highlights Borne’s view that pregnancy and childbirth research is underfunded, with less than 2% of medical research spending directed to the field.
  • Borne cites around 60,000 premature births each year in the UK and 15 million globally, with related complications a leading cause of neonatal death and lifelong disability.
  • Beatrice urged parents to share prematurity experiences to build peer support and pressed for better data, tools and clinical collaboration to improve outcomes.