Inside Cara De La Hoyde’s honest motherhood journey as she talks post-baby body, breastfeeding and breakdowns

Cara De La Hoyde recently gave birth to her second child after being rushed into hospital, and while she’s over the moon with joy at her new arrival, she’s also been brutally honest about mum life since.

The Love Island star, who shares her son Freddie-George and daughter with husband Nathan Massey, has been documenting her motherhood journey on Instagram with her followers.

Since she welcomed her daughter, who she is yet to reveal the name of, Cara has been praised for being so candid about the pain of giving birth, breastfeeding in public, breakdowns and her post-baby body.

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Giving birth

Cara was taken into hospital after she was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and was induced early so no further complications arose.

She welcomed a healthy baby girl, with Nathan gushing about how proud he was of Cara, and calling her a hero.

The new mum then took to Instagram to share how she was on cloud nine but wanted to share the bits that “no one tells you about”.

She wrote: “I may look absolutely shattered but I’m so in [red heart emoji] right now”.

Cara was heavily praised as she then admitted: “P.s reality of a new mum bleeding, back ache, sore nipples & still looking pregnant no one tells you these bits (but it’s so worth it )”.

Post baby body

While many women in the public eye often get straight back to the gym to get back to their pre-baby body, Cara has been open about the realities of her own body following the birth of her child.

She shared a photo of herself in nothing but a pair of knickers on her Instagram story shortly after giving birth with a rounded belly and wrote: “The reality of having a baby”.

Fans have loved seeing Cara’s truthful account on Instagram instead of hiding away using filters, and in particular a snap of her in her underwear looking gorgeous nine days after giving birth drew attention.

Standing in front of the mirror, Cara captioned the picture: “9 days later this is me. Great day today shooting something very exciting,” followed by a smiling face emoji.

And her friends, fans and followers were quick to tell Cara how fabulous she looked, with her fellow Love Island star Olivia Bowen writing alongside a red heart emoji: “SO beautiful.”

One fan wrote, “You look absolutely amazing,” as another one added, “You look amazing. Be kind to urself Uve just had a baby. [sic]”

And a fourth person said: “You look incredible.”

Breakdowns

Cara hasn’t shied away from the tougher parts of motherhood and has been more than willing to open up about how she’s dealing mentally becoming a new mum for the second time.

She admitted she had a “breakdown” while at supermarket Asda as she headed out to shop when her daughter was four days old.

The TV personality was left overcome with emotions as she headed out as she adjusts to breastfeeding her daughter.

Cara told fans as she updated them after giving birth earlier this week: “Nathan said he would do the shopping, but I said ‘no, I want to get out for an hour and just look at baby grows. I just wanted to get out and be a bit normal.

“But then she started crying and wanted a feed and I didn’t really know what to do. There’s nowhere to sit, but rather than just go back to the car like Nathan said I just had a breakdown and started crying like a weirdo.”

While feeding her daughter in the clip, Cara then joked: “Thankfully because I had a face mask on people couldn’t really tell.”

Breastfeeding

Speaking of breastfeeding, that’s been another challenge for Cara to deal with and opened up about “leaking everywhere” as she started to feed her daughter.

Taking to Instagram, the mother of two shared her exhaustion as she adjusts to life with her newborn.

Cara said: “Good morning guys, I am tired! So today the baby is three days old. My milk has come in and it has come in hard. I am like a leaking tap. I am leaking on her. I am leaking on me. I am leaking everywhere,” she explained.

Cara then panned down to her breasts and exclaims: “They are massive. I am knackered. Fred is at school today, Nathan has just taken him bless him. But yeah, every two hours [feeding] and at least the milk is in and she’s healthy.”

She took to her Instagram page again on Friday to explain she was breastfeeding in public on her own, and was prepared with her swaddle.

Cara seemed a little apprehensive as she spoke adding: “Yeah… we’ll see how this goes.”

The next snap then showed her feeding her daughter as she raised her eyebrows in a short clip with the caption: “We’re doing it #breastfeedinginpublic.”