How I felt isolated as a new mum
THE Duchess of Cambridge has told how she felt isolated as a first-time mum and would have loved extra support while living in NorthWales.
Kate recalled her days with the infant Prince George while Prince William was an RAF helicopter pilot.
She told the Ely & Caerau Children’s Centre, which supports parents in Cardiff: “It’s nice to be back in Wales.”
And she explained: “It was the first year and I’d just had George. William was still working with Search and Rescue and I had a tiny, tiny baby in the middle of Anglesey.
“It was so isolated, so cut off. I didn’t have any family around and he was doing night shifts. If only I had had a centre like this.”
She vowed to take her children – George, six, Princess Charlotte, four, and 21-month-old Prince Louis – on a trip to Angelsey.
The Duchess’s visit to Ely, a deprived part of Cardiff, was part of the launch of her landmark national online survey about the early years development of under-fives, entitled Five Big Questions.
She went on a 24-hour tour of the country to promote her crusade, starting in Birmingham on Tuesday and finishing yesterday afternoon at Send prison near Woking, Surrey.
Kate, 38, hopes to inspire the biggest ever national conversation about how parents can get improved support to give all children in Britain the best possible start in life.
She told staff at the Cardiff centre: “I see amazing work, like what you are doing here, in so many areas. You are doing an incredible job and it’s just bringing it to light really.
Ambition
“The critical work with families at this early age really has a massive social and economic impact later down the line – billions of pounds are spent on later intervention.”
Kate, who wore a £349 Massimo Dutti coat and £30 Zara skirt, talked about her mission.
She said: “It’s raising the profile of the importance of the early years, without adding pressure to parents, who already have lots of pressure on them. That’s why it takes a community to really support families.
“Well done, if only there was a centre like this in every community.”
Fog in South Wales meant she had to cancel plans to go to a breakfast with children in south London and then fly by helicopter to Cardiff. Instead, Kate took the train – but she did make it to Woking later.
Inside HMP Send, she met women whose stories helped inspire her mission, with prisoners tracing their history of offending and addiction back to troubled childhoods.
The future Queen has made it her life’s ambition to support parents from all backgrounds to improve the early years care of children.
Her crusade was partly inspired by a previous visit to Send in 2015.
The Duchess told a group of exoffenders, including several women she met four years ago when they were serving sentences: “It really shocked me when I came here last time how early the challenges were that you faced.” Send is a resettle
ment prison housing an 80-bed unit that helps women with rehabilitation, building skills and confidence.
The women she met had been through a 12-step drug treatment created by The Forward Trust, which works in 25 prisons across Britain.
Inmate Francesca told Kate she started taking drugs and offending after her parents split up. At Send with the Forward Trust programme, she has started to resolve issues going back to childhood.
She added: “What they have done here has changed my life. It’s a miracle.
“Coming to jail is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.”
The Duchess replied: “It’s so often I hear that. Why does it have to get to that before people receive help?”
Kate also met Julie Muir, who became addicted to drugs after family problems and was jailed for three years when she was 21 in 2001.
Asked why people end up in jail, she said: “It’s to do with trauma in the early years.
“We need more support for parents, more counselling.”