She’s well known for her honest and upfront chat but Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha has revealed she was actually banned from a pre-natal yoga class for going into too much detail with some expectant mothers-to-be.
Speaking on Loose Women during a segment about tokopbobia - the fear of childbirth - Nadia, 53, revealed she would chat to the pregnant women during coffee breaks between class and she couldn’t help but warn them about the pain of childbirth.
She said: ‘I’m so embarrassed about this because I really was mortified when the yoga teacher rang me.
‘I’d had my first birth that had been much more challenging and I was sitting in the coffee break of the yoga class going, “Oh my God, just you wait it’s so awful, oh I don’t think I’ve ever recovered. I see myself as a survivor of torture.’
The sheepish presenter then revealed that the conversations she’d been having weren’t deemed appropriate by the yoga teacher.
‘It wasn't until she banned me, I thought yeah. I hated her initially but now I think she's got a point. People are there trying to get focused and trying to breathe.’
Nadia, who has two children, Maddie, 15, and Kiki, 11, with her husband Mark Adderley, has previously spoken about her bad experience of childbirth with her eldest daughter.
Earlier this year, the 53-year-old presenter and her husband recalled the birth of their two daughters for one of their YouTube series, How to stay married (So far), where they spoke about whether they were on the same page or not about having a home birth.
Their first child, Maddie was born at home as Nadia’s family had a history of home births, although Mark wasn’t as keen.
Complications then started when Mark was told the mum was not dilating. He said: ‘From then on, the birth became the most horrendous situation, because a “so-called expert" told me that we had to get you to a hospital.’
Speaking about how it felt to see Nadia go through it at home when he thought there were complications, Mark said: ‘I thought you were going to die. I genuinely did. I just remember feeling very cross with every part of your life that said this so-called approach was ok.
'Then I thought my daughter would die. I was so out of control I will never forget passing the door and thinking "you are going to die".’
Nadia has previously revealed that she was 'sobbing' when she saw the changes to her body after labour.
'I certainly remember after I had my baby sitting there with my legs open and a mirror and sobbing my eyes out because it was so deformed,' she said on Loose Women last year.
And since her yoga faux pax, Nadia said she now remembers to tell expectant mums what happened during the labour alongside the story of her positive experience delivering her youngest, Kiki.
She continued: 'What I do now is I will say where it was difficult for me with my first birth, and why it was because I wasn't prepared. Then I'll give the positive story of my second birth, which was so amazing.'
Words by Laura Hinton
