Paloma Faith details her temporary postpartum psychotic outburst

Paloma Faith has revealed she suffered a temporary postpartum psychotic outburst following the birth of her three-year-old daughter.

The singer, 39, told how she thought her head had been ‘sewn onto someone else’s body’, as she suffered from exhaustion after welcoming her baby.

Paloma discussed her experience while appearing on the Sweat, Snot & Tears podcast and said she knew people would think she was ‘crazy’.

Despite knowing this, she was still convinced the bizarre swap had taken place after she gave birth to her and partner Leyman Lahcine’s daughter in December 2016.

Paloma, who gave birth via caesarean section, told the hosts : ‘On day three, I had a temporary postpartum psychotic outburst where I believed that they sewn my head onto somebody else’s body… I really remember that it is was genuinely real feeling.

‘I knew that it sounded crazy and I kept saying, “I know it sounds crazy and I never would have thought anyone would do this, but they have!”

‘I had to stay in for a week all the things wrong with me, things wrong with me not the baby. 7lb born 5 weeks early, they were like this one is cooked!

‘One of the amazing midwives when I had that psychotic moment took the baby away for eight hours so I could sleep. 

‘In the morning I was like I’m so sorry, you were right I just needed sleep.’

‘I think people under estimate sleep, people talk about postpartum depression and I wonder if half those cases would diminish if people came over so you could get a good nights sleep.’ 

Paloma – who is pregnant with her second child after six rounds of IVF treatment – noted that previously difficulties with her pregnancy and birth mean she isn’t telling people her due date this time round because she’s not convinced things will go as planned.

She added: ‘My last pregnancy went so wrong that even to people who I would trust not to tell anyone, I can’t say it.

‘I don’t believe that my due date is a real thing. I’ve got PTSD about it. I’m sort of like, some point in the first quarter of next year but potentially before.’

The star – who noted she hasn’t been diagnosed with PTSD but does feel traumatised and worried – described pregnancy as ‘appalling’ and joked she has an ‘allergy’.

She said: ‘I think pregnancy is appalling! Obviously I wouldn’t have done it a second time if I didn’t really like the outcome!

‘I love the prize after the first 12 months, not at the beginning. [laughs] I really don’t like being pregnant. I don’t think it suits me, I don’t think my body likes it. It feels like I’ve got an allergy to pregnancy.’

And Paloma – who also joked about her ‘hideous underwear’ – admitted she has airbrushed her photos to help her own confidence.

She explained: ‘It’s so undignified. There’s a complete absence of dignity. I mean, I’m wearing the most hideous underwear I’ve ever seen, just because I’ve lost the will to live.

‘And thank God for photoshop, that’s all I can say! You know all those people who are like body conscious, ’embrace everything’. I’m like, ‘airbrush the hell out of me!’

It comes after Paloma candidly discussed her experience with IVF, saying she ‘felt like the host’ while trying to get pregnant with her second child. 

Speaking on LBC’s An Inconvenient Ruth, Paloma also discussed her struggle with postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter. 

During their very conversation Paloma and host Ruth Davidson chatted about relationships needing to be strong during IVF cycles as people do not always know at the start just how much ‘strength’ can be required.

Paloma said: ‘I do think that stuff goes on that you’re not necessarily aware of about conception and how that should be done and how you feel…

‘I don’t know ‘cos I’ve never experienced a natural pregnancy, whether you have that feeling, being pregnant, of sort of giving up your body to something else in the same way if you do it naturally.  

‘But I definitely feel like with IVF, I’ve always felt a bit like I’m sort of saying… It sounds really unromantic but I feel like the host.’ 

The duo also discussed the practicalities of IVF, with Paloma honestly saying: ‘It’s all undignified but so is pregnancy in general’.    

Paloma also reflected on what it was like during an IVF cycles, revealing that for her it was a ‘hormonal rollercoaster’ 

She said: ‘With IVF, like I would be working and I would like run to the toilet, do an injection, maybe like hit a vein, be bleeding, run back having done it properly and, ‘sorry, sorry’, and you’re like wincing. 

‘And then you’re in this hormonal rollercoaster that’s not really real hormones, you’ve basically just injected them into yourself and then you’re like completely out of control of it.’  

The singer also discussed how she’s been dealing with her emotions during her second pregnancy and admitted that she’s cried while planning Christmas.

Paloma told Ruth how her partner thinks she ‘over consumes’ as she’s been ordering lots while doing Christmas shopping online.

She said: ‘I’m like it’s Christmas, of course there’s lots of packages, I’m doing the Christmas shopping, trying not to get COVID, so I’m doing it online and he just like asked me and then a few times he was like it’s just too much, and I started crying.’

‘That’s not normal. I knew it wasn’t normal but I’m just like balling my eyes out. ‘I’m just not emotionally equipped to deal with this right now’, is what I said’. 

Reflecting on why she’s decided to be so open about her second pregnancy, Paloma said that chatting about how she’s coping also helps her. 

She said: ‘I think I get as much back about talking about this stuff publicly as I do feeling like it’s important to help others.

‘In a way I think with my first pregnancy I felt quite isolated ‘cos I was a bit like, ‘I’m a famous person, I don’t want to go to antenatal classes in case people stare at me’ or whatever and I felt vulnerable and it was all quite alien and I felt really isolated.’

Paloma added that this time she doesn’t ‘feel so much like that’ and credits already being a mum to her daughter for the change.

She said: ‘I think a lot of it’s to do with the fact that I’ve got a child already, I know a lot of the mums from nursery. She goes to a state nursery around the corner. 

‘Everything’s a bit more normalised and after the initial reaction of people being like, ‘oh my God, that’s Paloma Faith’, it quickly moves on to like, ‘I’m exhausted, have you done sleep training yet?’ or whatever.’