Louise Thompson has opened up to fans about how she is handling her childbirth trauma, getting emotional as she discussed feeling ‘triggered’ by babies in a brutally honest video that will also feel relatable for lots of mothers.
In the TikTok video, released yesterday evening, former Made in Chelsea star Louise candidly spoke about how she’s working hard to overcome the ‘problems’ caused by the traumatic birth of her son Leo in 2021, before revealing that she finds newborns a hard topic to tackle.
‘I’m just going to get on with it and say it… Over the past year I have found babies triggering. Especially newborns’ she wrote in the caption.
‘I have found pregnancy announcements a trigger. Baby bumps in the street. Babies crying.'
She also shared how the baby joy of those around her was a tough pill to swallow, saying ‘from the bottom of my heart, I’m so happy for my friends. Equally, I feel an overwhelming sense of sadness because I’m suffering the loss of something as well. I’m grieving the loss of that newborn experience that I didn’t have with my son. I don’t know whether I’ll be able to have children again, whether Leo will ever have any siblings…’
Louise has been open about her mental health struggles since welcoming her first child with partner Ryan Libbey. The former Made In Chelsea star suffers from PTSD and postnatal anxiety after nearly dying whilst giving birth to her son Leo in November 2021. She’s also been left battling with her physical health, undergoing surgeries for Asherman’s Syndrome (a rare condition that causes scar tissue to build up in the uterus.)
And in her TikTok, Louise took time to praise the incredible progress she’s made.
‘I am actually really pleased to announce that most of my triggers have subsided… And I’m slowly overwriting the bad experiences with good ones’ she wrote, adding ‘For a while, I’d dissociate every time I had a bath because I couldn’t look at my body from that angle. I couldn’t face seeing scars and limbs I didn’t recognise. Now I’ve replaced that bad bath memory with a GOOD experience. I’m slowly getting back to normality.’
And Louise also shared how she was slowly working her way through the ‘trigger’ of babies, sharing ‘I am pleased to announce that I met Leo’s baby cousin on the weekend and it was pure joy. No scaries. PHEW. I’m no longer scared of babies.'
One in every 10 women within a year of giving birth according to NHS research. And it isn’t just those who have given birth that can find themselves affected, with fathers and partners also struggling too. Louise revealed how it was the comments of her partner Ryan that prompted the video, explaining how he too had been left feeling emotional over the ‘experience that was robbed of us.’
Finishing on a call of support for other parents, Louise shared ‘I want YOU to know that it is okay to feel mixed emotions towards people that are pregnant, people that give birth, the babies, the baby showers, the gender reveals. Everything related to birth. Even meeting a midwife at an event freaked me out the other day.’
Fans were quick to share their support for Louise’s honesty in the comments.
One wrote ‘I suffered greatly with my first child like you did but I went on to have three more children. I was terrified but everything was absolutely okay’ – with Louise replying ‘Oh wow! Thanks for the optimism’ with a love heart emoji.
Another added, ‘I’m an only child. And I’m not mad about it, never have been. I actually love being an only child. My mum also had PTSD from birth when she had me,’ with Louise replying ‘Oh, thank you so much for sharing! What did she do that you think I could do for Leo to make his life as great as possible?’
And from the masses of comments sharing their own stories, Louise is kickstarting a conversation that will only bring about positive change.
For any help on the topics in this article, you can contact Birth Trauma Association at birthtraumaassociation.org.uk for support with perinatal mental health, or contact PANDAS at pandasfoundation.org.uk.