Let it be said, all is not rosy when a newborn arrives.
And the fact of having already had children before does not protect against the physical and emotional upheaval of childbirth, both on daily life and on mental health and life as a couple.
Former swimming champion Laure Manaudou, 36, testified to this on Tuesday October 11 in a video interview for
Brut
.
“Submerged, smothered”
Laure Manaudou and her companion, singer Jérémy Frérot, welcomed their little boy last year, on January 27, 2021. Following the event, the swimmer confides that she had a “huge postpartum depression” for a year. .
"I felt like I didn't know how to take care of my son, even though it's not the first child, it's the third," she explains.
And to add: “I felt overwhelmed, suffocated.
It was too, in fact, too oppressive.
I realized that it was much more difficult for the last one and I did not know how to manage.
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The former Olympic champion and the singer, together since 2015 and married since 2018, are indeed already parents of a little Lou, now 4 years old.
Laure Manaudou also has a daughter, Manon, born in 2010 from her union with swimming champion Frédérick Bousquet.
Experienced in high-level sports preparation techniques, Laure Manaudou admits that she thought she could overcome this experience of motherhood.
"I've always said to myself, and I think it's people who keep telling me, 'You're a strong woman!'
Already, physically I am tall, I am 1m80, I have done sports, so people tend to think that I am someone very tough and I think that I have hidden a lot of things by saying to myself: “ No, it's fine, I'm strong, I'll get there.
Until I said to myself: “Well no, in fact, I can't anymore, I no longer accept being like that”, she recalls.
In video, the trailer for "Post-partum the documentary", by director Ève Simonet
Repercussions on the couple
Breastfeeding that was more complicated than expected would have lit the fuse of postpartum depression, informs Laure Manaudou.
“My symptoms were extreme fatigue, a lot, a lot of nervousness.
In fact, I was always angry, I was never smiling, she recalls.
So, yes, maybe on the surface, but inside, it was really: I was pissed off at my daughter at the slightest word that she could come out of her mouth.
And to conclude: “I saw everything in black, it took up all the space.
I was negative, whereas at the base I am not like that”.
During this period, his couple was put to the test.
“I was yelling at my husband at night when I was very calm and not shouting.
I'm not with someone who put on earplugs and didn't help me at all [during the night].
He always woke up for our two boys… But at that time we didn't realize it, ”says the 30-year-old.
Read alsoMy couple died the minute my child was born: parents tell
free speech
Recently, the national perinatal survey published on October 6, 2022 by Public Health France, shows that 16.7% of women have postpartum depression two months after childbirth.
These alarming figures are largely explained by the great ignorance of this female malaise which has remained taboo for a long time.
“We don't dare ask, concedes Laure Manaudou.
It also takes time to realize that you are depressed.
We are bathed in saying "yes, it's a baby blues", except that the baby blues, it does not last more than ten days, so beyond that, we have to talk about it.
The former Olympic champion is now campaigning for better postpartum medical follow-up, focusing as much on the well-being of the child as of the mother.
And for loved ones?
“Rather than offering pajamas to the baby, we offer cleaning hours for the mother […], time for the mother which is important for her mental health”, she assures.