Paloma Faith says ensuring she gets plenty of sleep has been good for her mental health amid her second post-partum experience.
Paloma Faith opens up on post-partum journey with second child
The 40-year-old singer welcomed her second daughter with her husband Leyman Lahcine 10 months ago, and she chose to mostly formula feed the tot so she wouldn't be required to breastfeed all the time, in a bid to afford more hours to get some much-needed shut-eye.
She said: "It meant that my baby didn't end up breastfeeding very well but I was just really happy to be in a situation where somebody else could feed the baby."
The 'Only Love Can Hurt Like This' hitmaker was hallucinating and in psychosis for "22 hours" after she had her first daughter in December 2016.
And she was "convinced" nurses had "sewn" her "head on to someone else's body" during a post-partum psychosis episode, brought on by severe exhaustion after a traumatic birth.
Paloma went through the ordeal of an emergency Caesarian after suffering a womb infection and prematurely ruptured waters
Speaking to the Daily Express newspaper, she said: "I did have post-natal depression in quite a big way.
"The second time I didn't have it as much because I knew from that first experience how affected I am by lack of sleep.
"A lot of women think they just need to accept it, but I didn't.
"I was like, 'I'm going to get sleep.'"
Recalling the terrifying delusions she was having in her weary state, she added: "Mentally, it was really bad.
"On day three I had 22 hours of post-partum psychosis. I was so exhausted, I just lost the plot.
"I was hallucinating.
"I thought they'd sewn my head onto someone else's body. I was convinced.
"It sounds funny now but at the time I was pressing the nurse button just crying and going, 'What have you done to me?'
"My partner was like, 'Calm down, what are you talking about?' and I was like, 'You're in on it!'
"Luckily the midwife came and said, 'I think you need to sleep, I'm taking this baby.'
"And she let me have seven hours of sleep and when I woke up, I was like, 'I'm so sorry...'"
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