With her usual charm and candour, Lara Stone has opened up about motherhood – and learning to love her imperfections. The 30-year-old supermodel, mum to one-year-old Alfred with husband David Walliams, spoke to The EDIT about life since becoming a mummy.
"On his (Alfred's) birthday, I cried the whole day," the star admitted to Net-A-Porter's digital magazine. "When they're born and just a helpless little blob laid on your chest, they're so vulnerable and little. And now he's this huge monster – in the loveliest way. "He doesn't really say words, but he can make himself understood," she added with a smile. "He's very strong-minded and he knows exactly what he wants to do, and if it's not right he'll have a huge tantrum. He's completely hilarious – this little boy, stamping his little foot." Asked if she recognises parts of herself in her son, Lara replied, "Yeah, the tantrums, but I don't look as cute as him when I do it."That refreshingly down-to-earth attitude was something that Lara employed when it came to giving birth.
Speaking about the pressure put on women to give birth as naturally as possible, the Dutch model noted, "The only thing that should matter is that you and your baby are both healthy – alive, even, by the end of giving birth. "I had friends who said they were going to have a water birth, music and candles. I was like, 'Who gives a s*** if you had an epidural or a C-section or you just breathed through it?' "
The reward at the end of it isn't that you can say to your friends 'I had a natural birth'. Your reward is that you have a beautiful healthy baby. " Lara returned to work four months after giving birth to Alfred, and she has admitted that struggling with her changing body during pregnancy meant she was nervous to get back in front of the camera.
"If it wasn't for my job, I'm not sure how worried I would have been about the whole thing," she admitted. "During my pregnancy I wasn't exercising a lot…. I was huge. "The star, who has been working out with Bodyism Gym founder James Duigan since her son was six weeks old, has finally learnt to embrace her post-baby shape. "I'm just trying to accept it right now. And it's ok, because the things women can do with their bodies are amazing. "You have to sit there and really think about it: 'Oh, I grew this little person's fingernails in my tummy.' After that, do you really give a s*** about arm flab? Because I don't."
