LAURA WOODS has lifted the lid on her anxieties of returning to work after giving birth.
The award-winning presenter gave birth to baby Leo in January and only returned to work in April.
Laura Woods has opened up about her anxieties coming back to work after giving birth[/caption]
The award-winning presenter gave birth to baby Leo in January[/caption]
She has opened up about her scrutiny struggles as she juggles a career and being a mother[/caption]
However, the 38-year-old says her return to working life hasn’t been easy.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Woods had candidly lifted the lid on her fears of stepping back in front of camera.
Her worries included concerns about her appearance due to her weight gains during her pregnancy and suffering from “baby brain”.
She explains how at times she had just been sitting at home and forgetting normal things like the name of a fork.
Woods said: “I was very worried that I would be off the mark. I was worried that I would have lost some of my edge or sharpness.
“I kept forgetting names, which started during pregnancy. It’s a thing that everyone talks about. You don’t think you’re going to get it.
“You get a bit of ‘baby brain’ and it’s hard when you’re presenting because a lot of the time stuff is thrown at you and you don’t see it before it goes live.
“It’s live TV, so you have to react. You have to be sharp… I was nervous about getting little kind of brain drop-outs. But I surprised myself. I wasn’t awful!”
Women who work in television are often judged by how they look, but fortunately Woods says that when she came back she had found a new “level of acceptance of myself” after rearranging her list of priorities.
She continued: “I was nervous about how I looked. You put on a lot of weight in pregnancy and you feel a little bit different.
“Of the things I used to worry about, my appearance probably would have been top of that list. But funnily enough that’s sort of taken a bit of a back step…
“When I came back I felt quite a level of acceptance of myself I don’t think I had before I had a baby.
“However you have your baby, however tricky or easy your pregnancy is, your body will change and you just accept it because you think there’s something much bigger going on. My body has done an amazing thing.”
The former TalkSPORT radio presenter was always open about her journey to motherhood, supported by fiance and former Love Island star, Adam Collard, who is Leo’s father.
Her “wonderful” colleagues at ITV have also been a great source of support for her following the major life milestone.
While the sports broadcasting industry can be brutal and unforgiving, becoming a mother opened Woods up to a completely new world of scrutiny, which naturally came with its own fears of judgement.
Woods added: “I remember putting a picture of Leo up on social media and thinking, ‘What if people pull me up on something? Am I holding the baby wrong? Is he wearing too many clothes? Is he not wearing enough clothes?’
“I had my phone in the background and someone messaged me and said, ‘Get your phone away from that baby!’ I just thought, ‘Give me a break’.
“I thought it was bad enough when you work in telly and football. I just don’t really bother with social media like I used to and that’s great. It makes me feel a lot better to be honest.”
After initially returning to TNT Sports for their coverage of the Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Inter Milan, Woods is now leading ITV’s coverage of the Women’s Euros this summer.
England fell to defeat to France in their opener before a resounding victory over the Netherlands for Sarina Wiegman‘s team as they look to defend their European title won on home soil in 2022, and Woods is hopeful of that being achieved.
The Lionesses are in action against Wales for their final game of Group D, with England being fully fit going into the critical home nations clash.
