Montana Brown has revealed that she chose to have a home birth when welcoming her son Jude last month because she felt that hospitals are not “the safest place” for non-white people. The former Love Island star, 27, shared a YouTube vlog about her pregnancy and birth plan recently to answer questions from followers about her experience. She opened up about her decision to have a home birth, adding that she hired a doula, a trained professional who supports women through labour and birth, as well as through post-partum. Brown, who is mixed race and has Japanese and Jamaican heritage, said she “can’t wait” for her home birth. She filmed her vlog before giving birth to Jude in June. “I feel like hospital isn’t the safest place to give birth and I know people are gonna be like, ‘What the f***, you’re an idiot’ but I just think it’s personal preference,” she told her followers. “Also, I just think as a non-white person, it’s not the safest place to be in hospital in childbirth. All these things I’ve thought about for a long time. We’re also having a doula, which I’m really excited about.” In the UK, Black women are nearly four times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than white women, according to a report published by MBRRACE-UK (Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK) in 2022. The study found that there was a slight drop in the maternal mortality rate for Black women between 2018 and 2020. It also found that Asian women are around twice as likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than white women. In a 2021 response, the government said it was “committed to reducing disparities in health outcomes and experience of care”. Brown, who is engaged to fiancé Mark O’Connor, said she asked for advice on a home birth from The Only Way Is Essex (Towie) star Sam Faiers, who she called the “queen of home birthing”. “It’s just fantastic… She’s helping me feel really set in my decision,” she said. Replying to a fan who asked if she felt afraid of giving birth, Brown said had the “most positive mindset ever”, and would continue to do so even if she had to have a “C-section, an epidural, or wound up in hospital”. The reality star and her fiancé welcomed baby Jude on 23 June. Last week, she opened up about the struggle to get pregnant despite being in her twenties and said she was surprised it took her so long to conceive. Speaking on the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast, Brown told host Giovanna Fletcher that she thought “something was wrong” with her when she and O’Connor first started trying for a baby. “I thought, ‘We’re young, this is going to be really easy’… For the first four months, we’d used ovulation sticks, and then I’d do a pregnancy test and it’d be negative,” she recalled. After both she and her partner went to check their fertility, they discovered she had “no oestrogen and no testosterone”, which made her realise that people “can be young, fit and healthy, and still really, really struggle to conceive”. Announcing her son’s birth, Brown shared a black-and-white photograph of the newborn being cradled against her chest on Instagram and wrote: “Welcome to the world Jude Isaiah O’Connor. We’re so smitten with you little man.” The couple announced their engagement in April, after O’Connor proposed to her in Bermuda. They first met in 2020. Brown featured in series three of Love Island and was coupled up with Alex Beattie at the end. They broke up shortly after leaving the villa. Read More Ruth Handler: The Barbie inventor who revolutionalised prosthetic breasts and narrowly avoided prison Woman praised for response to airline employee who asked her to swap first class seat with child Fans defend Prince Harry and Meghan Markle amid breakup rumours 8 healthy habits to help you live longer – according to a new study The bowel cancer symptom George Alagiah wished he’d caught earlier George Alagiah: What are the signs of bowel cancer?

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Eniola Aluko has left football fans baffled after sharing a theory about Declan Rice’s potential move to Arsenal, suggesting that the north London club asked Manchester City to put in a bid for the player. Arsenal have been chasing Rice over recent weeks and had an offer of £75 million plus £15 million in add-ons rejected. It’s also emerged that Man City have entered the race and had a £90 million bid rejected too, reportedly falling short of West Ham’s £100 million valuation for the player. Now, former England international Aluko has claimed that it could be a case of Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta calling up his former colleague Pep Guardiola and getting him to place a bid without really being interested in Rice. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Aluko has been sporting director for Aston Villa Women and Angel City in the US, and she said that it’s a tactic she had used in the past - but fans on social media aren't at all convinced. Aluko said: “There’s a lot of cat and mouse here and as a sporting director, I used to do this a lot. “I used to call up a club and say 'right, can you put a bid in' and that would get my owner to basically put a higher bid in. It’s a bit like an auction. “I don’t think that Manchester City actually want to sign Declan Rice. I think what is going on here is that Arteta has picked up the phone to Pep [Guardiola] and said ‘Arsenal are going to do the incremental bid approach, if you put a bid in, then that will push my owner’. “I think there’s a bit of that going on here.” Aluko went on to say: “I don’t know why Arsenal are doing this incremental approach but it says to me, Man City coming in later on, it feels like that it is going to help Arsenal. “The fans are going to get on it now and say ‘hold on a second, if you let Declan Rice go to Man City when he was our No.1 target, then that says a lot about Arsenal. “So I think there is a bit of that going on. I used to do it all the time and it used to work.” The opinion didn’t go down well with fans on social media, with users criticising the take. “What a bizarre take,” one wrote. Another said: “This might be the worst take I’ve ever heard.” One more commented: “Worst opinion and take I've seen on here for a while. Is she on a wind up or is this genuine?” Another added: “Pep just bidding £90m to help a mate is a proper weird take.” Former striker Aluko played 102 times for England, scoring 33 goals. She played for Chelsea, Atlanta Beat, Chelsea and Juventus during her club career. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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