Kate Middleton Reveals She Felt “Isolated” After Prince George’s Birth

The Duchess of Cambridge revealed yesterday that she felt isolated after giving birth to her first child, Prince George. She shared the information while visiting Ely & Caerau Children’s Centre in Cardiff, Wales with Prince William, who, at the time of the birth, was still serving in the Royal Air Force, Today Parents reports. “I’d just had George—William was still working with search and rescue—and we came up here and George was a tiny, tiny, little baby, and in the middle of Anglesey,” the 38-year-old royal said. “It was so isolated, so cut off. I didn’t have family around, and he was doing night shifts. So, if only I had had a center like this.”

Her visit to the center is a part of the promotion for her new survey, which launched Tuesday. The survey focuses on early childhood development and asked parents across the UK to answer five questions about children younger than 5 years old. The goal? To start a country-wide conversation on how to best serve these young children.

According to Kensington Palace, Catherine has spent eight years studying “how experiences in early childhood often lie at the root of the hardest social challenges the country faces today.” While launching the survey, she stated, “Parents, carers and families are at the heart of caring for children in the formative years, so that is why I want to listen to them," adding, "As a parent I know how much we cherish the future health and happiness of our children. … My ambition is to provide a lasting change for generations to come.”

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