Bláthnaid Treacy has revealed that she's expecting her first child with husband Charlie Moon, and although hiding it for half of the pregnancy, she was still caught out by her eagle-eyed fans.
Speaking to Jennifer Zamparelli on RTÉ 2FM, Treacy said she relied on "lots of hoodies, big baggy clothes" to conceal her news.
"It's funny, when you get pregnant it's so exciting and then the first three months you have to sort of not tell anyone", she said.
She added that while it wasn't directly brought up to her in person, a few online sleuths sussed out her big news. "Nobody said it to me but actually when I put it up a few people, I'm hosting the Lotto this month, a few people said, 'My mum spotted your bump!'"
The couple told their families at Christmas, but part of what kept Treacy quiet for the last few weeks was an awareness of how triggering or upsetting baby updates can be for some people. "You have to be aware, it's quite a sensitive subject as well, and you have to be careful who you say it to and how you say it as well. We're just so happy."
When asked whether she felt people were getting better at being conscientious of that, Treacy said she definitely believed so. "I think people are much better at speaking about losses. I think everybody knows somebody who has suffered a loss. You just have to be a little bit more mindful and more careful."
Treacy's news was the perfect segue into the next item for discussion, as Jen brought up a recent study that found that birth rates are falling across the Western world, even in countries renowned for their parental and childcare supports.
The study found that most women say they'd prefer to have two children, but many are not having any. Certain governments are incentivising higher birth rates by offering better supports like paid leave and education, but rates are falling even in countries in Norway and Iceland, which are known as leaders in childcare and parental support.
One of the reasons listed in the survey was that many women aren't having children because they said they hadn't found the right person.
"You can do it on your own now", Treacy said in response. "You don't need A man; you can get a sperm donation. Obviously, you need a man to do the sperm donation but you've got so many more options now.
"Everyone's sort of changing their attitudes toward parenting, do you need to have two people, do you need to have a mum and a dad? You can have two mums, two dads, you can have one mum, one dad. Families look totally different now."
Of course, money and childcare support play a massive role in taking the jump into parenthood, as Treacy noted: "For us, Charlie and I, we're married, we're together a long time, we're very happy but I've other friends and they're still trying to get onto the property ladder, [they] mightn't want to start a family until they can do that."
She added that there are factors that have caused people to "push that out a little bit further" in recent years, such as previous or looming recessions. "Unfortunately the longer you leave it, the more difficult it can become to get pregnant", she said.
Faced with few resources for childcare outside the home, Jen noted that "You have to become very good at asking for help", something she had to learn on the job.
She recalled that when she was first a parent, she relied on "a lot of juggling, a lot of asking for help which I wasn't very good at initially as a parent, because Lao was away and I would try and do it all myself and I would get extremely stressed out".
Despite this, Treacy stressed, it's still very possible and rewarding to be a single parent, as one of her own friends is single and expecting a baby. "You don't always need a partner there, you can do it on your own."
Listen back to the full interview here.
