Gemma Atkinson has opened up about her mental health struggles ahead of the birth of her second child.
Former Hollyoaks actress Gemma, 38, is expecting her second child with her fiancé Gorka Marquez, and the couple are already proud parents to three-year-old Mia.
Following the arrival of her daughter, Gemma revealed she had a difficult childbirth and almost died as she started haemorrhaging in labour and her daughter's heart rate began to drop.
And as the birth of her second baby steadily approaches, Gemma has revealed that she has been riddled with anxieties about giving birth again.
Taking to her Instagram stories on Monday, the expectant got honest about her feelings as she revealed she has been struggling in recent weeks.
"I've just had a visit from Rachel my lovely midwife. We have just been taking about birth options and things moving forward. All lovely positive stuff and lots of positive affirmations which we're focusing on," Gemma told her followers.
"We're getting everything mentally in place. Physically, I can do this but mentally, it's like hitting a wall in a workout. I need to just push through," she added.
Amid her worries about giving birth again, former Strictly Come Dancing star Gemma has taken measures into her own hands as she feels she needs to be 'monitored more' by hiring a private midwife.
Gemma, however, insisted she fully backs the nurses strikes and revealed she will be giving birth in an NHS hospital.
The TV star recently explained her decision in a lengthy Instagram post as she penned: "I love our NHS but I know how stretched they are and with the strikes still happening I felt uneasy at the thought of history repeating itself with my pregnancy and not enough staff to help. (BTW, I fully support their reasons for striking and they should absolutely be paid a hell of a lot more for what they do!)
"Our baby will be born at an NHS hospital but my pre and post care will be done by Rach. Last time I was told Mia was going to be a big baby and she was absolutely tiny so this time I felt I needed and wanted monitoring more closely.
"I'll be having a lot more scans this time keeping a close eye on baby's size (so far everything for baby and me results wise are spot on and as expected)."
Gemma announced her second pregnancy a number of weeks ago in a sweet Twitter post.
She tweeted: "Impossible to hide my belly any longer. I’ve officially 'popped.' Our baby boy will be joining our family later this year.
"We feel so incredibly blessed and Grateful to be on this journey again. Mia is absolutely thrilled! Although we may need to do some negotiating on names, as so far she’s adamant he’s going to be called Barbie."
