Adele Silva miscarried three times in three years before giving birth to her first child.
The 34-year-old actress – who starred as Kelly Windsor in the ITV soap ‘Emmerdale’ from 1993 until 2011 – welcomed her "miracle" daughter Sienna Evie 12 weeks ago and has admitted she was overwhelmed with emotion immediately after the birth.
Adele – who’s engaged to businessman Oliver Farber – recalled: "When I first saw her, I just sobbed. Holding Sienna in my arms was amazing. I just never, ever thought we’d get there… I fell pregnant once a year for three years, and lost each baby.
"The last was the hardest because it was past three months and we thought it was safe. It was a day before our 12-week scan."
Having been through so many ups and downs in recent years, Adele is wary of the threat of postnatal depression – but is thankful it hasn’t affected her so far.
She told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "I was really lucky. It’s not affected me – or it’s not affected me yet, because I know it could strike at any time.
"Yet I don’t have time to dwell on things. There’s always another washload to put on, I need to do the milk, sterilise something – sterilising is the bane of my life!"
Meanwhile, Adele recently landed a role in Channel 4 soap ‘Hollyoaks’, playing mum Angela Brown, but has insisted she feels under no pressure to lose her post-pregnancy weight to compete with her younger co-stars.
She shared: "If I’d been in my 20s I probably would’ve been a bit worried, but being that little bit older I think, ‘I’ll leave that to the young ones now’. Your priorities change when you have a baby. Now I’m just a bit like, ‘Whatever!’
"I look at other girls on Hollyoaks and go. ‘Wow!’ rather than thinking. ‘I must aspire to be like that’."
Adele Silva’s miscarriage heartache
