Casey: ‘Seeing boastful posts would have depressed me after my birth’
Celebrity Big Brother star Casey Batchelor, 36, is mum to daughters Florence, two, and one-year-old Sadie, and is expecting her third daughter this summer. She believes glowing reports of early motherhood could be damaging and says mothers need to be mindful of other new mums at such a vulnerable time.
Casey says, “It’s great that new mums have positive and happy birthing and parenting experiences, but for most first-time mums, feeling the best they’ve ever felt seems a very distant hope. In my own experience, after my first birth, I was so ill I couldn’t stand up for two weeks. I had been cut and stitched, I was bleeding heavily and I cried so much about how my body had changed.
“If I had seen another mum’s post about how brilliant they were feeling at the time, I’d have felt even more depressed and asked myself, ‘Why don’t I feel that way? Am I wrong to be feeling how I’m feeling?’
“Of course, I would want to be positive towards another mother, and I don’t want to bash any one, but it takes an incredibly strong person not to feel resentful and not to compare themselves.
“For women who have given birth just before and during the pandemic, a lot of those new mothers will be feeling low and isolated, or could be single mums without support.
“Women should celebrate having a positive birth, which is incredible, but I think it’s important to show solidarity with the women who aren’t feeling that way by extending sympathy, or even just by recognising that everyone is different.
“I feel that if you have a large following, like Laura, it’s so important to be mindful of how others are feeling. The best message for new mums is just to take care of themselves, and that it’s OK not to feel on top of the world.”