Sue Radford opens up about ‘stressful’ pregnancy complication with her 22nd child

Sue Radford

Sue Radford, the matriarch of Britain's biggest family, is currently pregnant with her 22nd baby, and has revealed that she's experience a bit of a worrying time with her unborn baby’s placenta.

Speaking to her 134,000 YouTube subscribers, Sue revealed that she has developed an anterior placenta, which sits in front of the baby instead of behind. She explained that it's something she has experience beforehand though, in her previous pregnancy.

She said, "This anterior placenta, this time around, has been a nightmare. I just do not like this placenta at the front, it's not good. It's stressful."

But despite the anterior placenta, Sue says she’s feeling “really healthy” and has reassured subscribers on how she’s doing this time around.

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Opening up, she said, “I'm feeling really healthy, got loads of energy. I've not got any back pain, which I must say is down to the fact that I don't feel as big as I have done with the others.

"I definitely feel smaller. I don't know if it's got anything to do with the anterior placenta because the placenta is at the front - but I had that with Bonnie and I still felt big with her.”

On Instagram, Sue shared a pregnancy update photo at 25 weeks, where she told followers, ‘Just over 25 weeks and I feel so tiny this time around 💗’

A photo posted by on

Many followers were shocked by how small Sue Radford’s bump was, with some commenting to share their own experiences.

One wrote, ‘Wow you look so tiny, I'm a week behind you and feel massive and have really bad spd 😭’

Another added, ‘Aww congratulations you are tiny compared to some of your other pregnancies’

And a third wrote, ‘Beautiful bump I was huge with my girl’

Surprisingly, an anterior placenta is very common during pregnancy. Studies have revealed that between one-quarter and one-half of all pregnancies, and in most cases it doesn’t cause a risk to the pregnancy either.

However, there are some complications that come with an anterior placenta, such as difficulty in feeling a baby kicking due to the fact the placenta serves as a shield between the baby and the mother’s abdomen. Most complications are very mild though, and is not usually a cause for concern.

Lucy Buglass
Digital Writer

Lucy Buglass is a Digital Writer for What's on TV, Goodto.com, and Woman&Home. After finishing her degree in Film Studies at Oxford Brookes University she moved to London to begin her career. She's passionate about entertainment and spends most of her free time watching Netflix series, BBC dramas, or going to the cinema to catch the latest film releases.