Amanda Holden has revealed she had to undergo therapy after her two traumatic births in 2011 and 2012.
The 46-year-old TV presenter gave birth to her stillborn son, Theo, in 2011. A year later she suffered a haemorrhage during her pregnancy with now four-year-old Hollie after the placenta attached to her bladder and ruptured an artery.
Holden, who is also mum to 11-year-old Alexa with her husband Chris Hughes, said she sought therapy after feeling unable to cope.
“It was like grief counselling,” she told the Daily Star on 19 February. “I wasn’t coping. I had to do something.”
Holden added: “I’m incredibly pragmatic and I understood I had to get someone to help me.
“I stopped therapy because it had served its purpose.”
Holden has previously spoken out about her son, Theo, who she lost at seven months’ pregnant.
“The leading obstetrician was passing and she scanned me again then she turned to me and said: ‘I’m terribly sorry, Amanda, but the baby’s heart is not beating. He’s gone’,” Holden told the Daily Mail in October 2013.
“[After giving birth] I rubbed noses with him and smelled his face and his neck and I just cried and cried and cried for his life, for the hope and joy and expectation that had been taken from us.”
During that interview she also explained she “flatlined” for 40 seconds during the birth of Hollie and had more than 30 medical staff there to save her life.
“Chris stood outside watching them running in to cope with the trauma, fearing the worst,” she added. “They eventually stemmed the bleeding. In truth, I don’t remember what happened. There was no white light or anything - just a void.”
For information and support:
PANDAS Foundation UK: National charity supporting people coping with pre- and postnatal mental illnesses as well as their families, friends and carers.
Sands: Charity supporting anyone affected by the death of a baby, working to improve the care bereaved parents receive, and promoting research to reduce the loss of babies’ lives.
Aching Arms: Baby loss charity run by a group of bereaved mothers who have suffered a loss providing support and advice.