“Tired, drowned.” Laura Manodu tells about her severe depression after the birth of her third child.

Let me tell you, not everything is rosy when a new baby arrives. And the fact of having children in the past does not protect against the physical and emotional shocks of childbirth, both in everyday life, and on mental health and life as a couple. On Tuesday, October 11, former swimming champion, 36-year-old Lora Manodu testified about this during a video interview. raw.

“Immersed, drowned”

Lor Manodou and her partner, singer Jeremy Frero, welcomed their baby boy last year on January 27, 2021. After the event, the swimmer admits that she suffered from “major postpartum depression” for a year. “I felt that I did not know how to take care of my son, although this is not the first child, it is the third,” she explains. And add: “I felt overwhelmed, suffocated. It was also, in fact, extremely depressing. I realized that it was much more difficult for the last one and I didn’t know how to act.

The former Olympic champion and the singer have been together since 2015, and married since 2018, and are already parents to little Lou, who is now 4 years old. Lor Manodou also has a daughter, Manon, born in 2010 from her union with swimming champion Frédéric Bousquet.

With a background in high-level sports training techniques, Laure Manaudou admits that she thought she could handle 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. Physically, I’m already tall, I’m 1m80, I’ve played sports, so people tend to think that I’m a very tough person and I think I’ve hidden a lot of things by telling myself: “No, it’s okay, I’m strong, I’ll get there. Until I said to myself. “Well, no, actually I can’t anymore, I don’t accept being like that anymore,” he recalls.

In the video: the trailer for the documentary “Afterbirth” directed by Yves Simonet

Reactions to the couple

Breastfeeding, which was more difficult than expected, lit the fuse for postpartum depression, Lor Manaudou reports. “My symptoms were extreme fatigue, very, very nervousness. In fact, I was always angry, I never smiled, he recalls. So yes, maybe on the outside, but on the inside it really was. I would get mad at my daughter at the slightest word that could come out of her mouth. And to conclude. “I saw everything in black, it took over the whole area. I was negative, but I’m not like that at the base.”

During this period, his couple was put to the test. “I used to shout at my husband at night when I was very calm and did not shout. I’m not with someone who put headphones on and didn’t help me at all [pendant la nuit]. He always woke up for our two boys… But we didn’t realize it at the time,” says the 30-year-old.

free speech

A recent national perinatal survey published on October 6, 2022 by Public Health France shows that 16.7% of women experience postpartum depression two months after giving birth. These alarming figures are mainly explained by the great ignorance of this female ill-health, which has long remained a taboo. “We don’t dare to ask,” admits Lor Manaudou. It also takes time to understand that you are depressed. We get bombarded with “yeah, it’s the baby blues,” except the beat blues don’t last more than ten days, so we have to talk about it after that.

The former Olympic champion is now campaigning for better postpartum medical care, focusing as much on the well-being of the baby as the mother. And for loved ones? “Instead of offering pajamas for the baby, we offer cleaning hours for the mother […]time for the mother, which is important for her mental health,” he assures.