Janette Manrara spoke openly about the emotional difficulty of not being able to hold her baby daughter after her painful C-section.
The Strictly Come Dancing star, 40, and her partner Alijaz Skorjanec, 33, announced in July that they had welcomed baby Lyra after two years of trying to conceive.
Janette struggled with a long recovery after giving birth and admitted she was feeling “really low”.
Speaking on The Mirror's podcast, she explained: “Having a caesarean section was hard, it's a long recovery. “I wasn't able to carry Lyra as much as I wanted. That was really hard for me emotionally.
“It's strange because you've carried this baby in your stomach for nine months – you feel so connected to him.” Then she's born and in the hospital you have to deal with stitches, you have to deal with all the medication thrashing around his body.'
Janette Manrara, 40, spoke openly about the emotional difficulty of not being able to hold her baby daughter after her painful C-section
The Strictly Come Dancing star and her partner Alijaz Skorjanec, 33, announced in July that they had welcomed baby Lyra after trying to conceive for two years
Janette continued: “I went down hard.” I just thought, “How can I not hold my baby now?” I just did that and now I can't hold her anymore. That was really hard.'
Appearing on Loose Women in December, Janette spoke about the journey of welcoming Lyra into the world, admitting she was “so glad” she didn't have to undergo in-vitro insemination.
She said: “I was 39 and it's more complicated than you think.” Don't assume it will happen as soon as you stop using contraception.
“We are so grateful we didn't have to undergo IVF.” “We have a book Sazarina and I didn't know how I would feel so I took medication in the morning and we danced and it was like a real birthday and she was born to the song we wanted.”
Janette had planned to undergo artificial insemination, but became pregnant naturally shortly before the actual insemination.
She explained: “We decided like two years ago and then two years later we weren't pregnant so we went to the doctors and started IVF.”
“Everything was fine and we were supposed to get pregnant naturally and then one day my period came and I got moody before I got the injections and we got pregnant naturally.”
Alijaz left Strictly Come Dancing in 2022 after nine years and is now a stay-at-home dad to Lyra.
He said: “I convinced Janette for years that I always wanted to be a father, but it had to work for both of us.”
Janette struggled with a long recovery after giving birth and admitted she was feeling “really low”.
Appearing on Loose Women in December, Janette spoke about the journey of welcoming Lyra into the world, admitting she was “so glad” she didn't have to undergo in-vitro insemination
The dancer added: “We can be away for months and now it's perfect because I can step back and be a stay-at-home dad.” “I have a new respect for the one who stays because it's a stay-at-home dad.” Full-time employment.”
Janette has previously hit out at trolls shaming her mother for returning to work four months after giving birth as host of the latest series It Takes Two.
She said on BBC Morning Live: “I was excited and felt really empowered to be a working mother for the first time.”
“But some people had different views.” “I received a few negative comments on social media about returning to work.”