Adele has paid tribute to her "best friend" for bravely overcoming postpartum psychosis after giving birth to her first child.
The ‘Hello’ singer is godmother to Laura Dockrill’s baby boy, whom she delivered in February this year, but the first six months of motherhood were a struggle for Laura because she developed the psychiatric condition, which causes new mums to experience symptoms such as hallucinations, manic moods and intense confusion.
Adele, 30, was instrumental in Laura getting the medical treatment she needed to get well and she has taken to her Instagram account to praise her pal for getting through the harrowing experience and directing her 32.6 million followers to Laura’s online article about her battle.
Uploading a selfie of the pair together to the photo sharing site, the musician wrote: "This is my best friend. We have been friends for more of our lives than we haven’t. She had my beautiful godson 6 months ago and it was the biggest challenge of her life in more ways than one. She has written the most intimate, witty, heartbreaking and articulate piece about her experience of becoming a new mum and being diagnosed with postpartum psychosis. Mamas talk about how you’re feeling because in some cases it could save yours or someone else’s life x Link in my bio to Laura’s story. (sic)"
Laura has revealed how it was Adele who spotted she could have postpartum psychosis during a FaceTime call with her friend in which she recognised she was not herself.
Speaking to BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat, she said: "She recognised it in me, I was on the phone FaceTiming her and she was the first one to detect what I might have."
In her candidly honest blog post for Mother of All Lists, Laura details her experience of postpartum psychosis and depression which followed a traumatic birth which eventually required her to have an emergency C-section.
Short story writer Laura admits it is "not easy to admit that the worst time of your life was when your baby was born" but when she got home from the hospital with her baby she felt "suicidal" and had "mania, mood swings, insomnia, delusions, paranoia, anxiety, severe depression and a side order of psychosis".
Eventually she was hospitalised for two weeks away from her son so she could be treated after an intervention from her partner Hugo, family and friends.
Now she is well and enjoying a healthy relationship with her baby, Laura wanted to share her story to help other women affected by the condition – which occurs in one in a thousand new mothers – and thank her man Hugo, "spirit sister" Adele and everyone else who supported her at during the most difficult time in her life.
In the blog post, she said: "There are a few thank yous I have to do to those starting with my true love Hugo, my one and only spirit sister Adele, my baby love E.T Daisy, my amazing parents and their partners, my partners family, my brother Hector, Siobhan, Penny, Buzz, Elbow, Anneka, Sabrina, Soufian, Bob, Wesley, Rupert and the wonderful Mums I’ve met along the way. I love you all so much. You saved my life.
"And of course to my precious little baby, you are six months so kind of happy birthday to you mate, I hope one day you read this and know how proud I am to have you, you were crowd surfed to the stage, you’ve healed all my wounds, I love you. We made it. X (sic)"
Adele helped best friend get over postpartum psychosis
