INTERVIEW
Anna loves to dress her newborn daughter up in H&M’s super-cute babywear Cotton romper suit £14.99, hm.com
Anna and husband Alex welc omed their second child, Eleanora in Dec ember 2019
MY ESSENTIALS Congratulations on the birth of your daughter, Eleanora! How’s it all going? Thank you! The last six weeks have been brilliant – I’m very much in my baby bubble and Eleanora and I bonded instantly. She’s an absolute joy, and I’m really enjoying motherhood. How has your three year old, Enzo, taken to having a sister? He adores her and is embracing his new role as a big brother, which is wonderful as I was a bit concerned that he wouldn’t. He’s constantly trying to kiss and hug her, which is very sweet. You suffered perinatal and postnatal depression with Enzo. How did you approach pregnancy this time? I was initially very anxious, as I was worried about going through the trauma all over again. But because I knew roughly what to expect this time, I felt a lot more in control and had to remind myself that I’d done it before and got through it. Equally, I recognised
ANNA WILLIAMSON
We chat to the presenter about mental health, baby brands, and welcoming her new arrival that my body would know what was right in the moment and just go with the flow, which really took the pressure off. I also took more time to relax, and I did pregnancy yoga and practised hypnobirthing, and I ended up really enjoying it.
How were you supported emotionally this time? The whole experience was completely different, because I had access to the mental health support I needed. I had some counselling sessions, just to readdress any flashbacks or
During this pregnancy, Anna practised hypnobirthing
Demi Grow pushchair from £600, shopnuna.co.uk
Enzo has taken to the big brother role with ease
reverse trauma from my last birth experience, and I opted for an elective caesarean, which is harder and takes longer to recover from, but was absolutely the right choice for me. You’ve been vocal about the fact the stigma around perinatal and postnatal mental health. Are things improving? It’s definitely edging in the right direction, but much more needs to be done. One in five mothers experience mental health challenges before and after pregnancy, and because we’ve historically just swept it under the carpet, so many people are suffering unnecessarily. The NHS is now starting to put more into it, but currently new mothers only get three minutes on average to talk about how they’re feeling mentally after birth. More needs to be done to acknowledge that pregnancy, labour and parenthood can be as much of an upheaval emotionally as they are physically, and that it’s okay to say that you’re not okay.
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