BBC presenter's heartache after she struggled to bond with premature baby son

BBC Radio 5 presenter Rachel Burden has spoken out about her struggle to bond with her youngest child.

Rachel, 42, has admitted she found it difficult to bond with baby Henry, when he was born three months early following a caesarean section, after Rachel was revealed to be suffering from pre-eclampsia.

“I didn’t really feel love for this scrawny creature,” she says. “I only felt relief that he was breathing, and anxiety that he was now out there on his own far earlier than he should have been.”

Rachel – who was already mum to three other children – explains that Henry was taken away and put into an incubator, filled with wires and other help for the premature baby. This, she reckons, along with the inability to have contact with her son for the first few days after the birth, made it more difficult for her to bond with the child.

But everything changed when she was finally able to hold her son: “I remember thinking he was really fragile and I wasn’t quite sure how to hold him. But it was amazing.

“As soon as I had him on my skin, that was the pivotal moment.”

Rachel believes it was the caesarean section that caused the delay in bonding and has spoken out about how difficult the surgery was, insisting it’s not an ‘easy option’.

Now Henry is 14 months, and the pair get on like a house on fire – with Rachel admitting, “Now I love him more than I can bear.”

Earlier this year, Rachel was branded ‘The Baby Whisperer’ after soothing a crying baby live on BBC Breakfast .

Rachel was presenting alongside Charlie Stayt on Saturday morning’s BBC Breakfast when the pair welcomed a young mum and her five-month-old baby Lily May on to the sofa.

They were there to talk about encouraging women to breastfeed their children for longer.

But when Lily May became increasingly agitated, presenter Rachel leapt in to offer to help.

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BBC Breakfast presenter Rachel Burden turns “Baby Whisperer”

While her mum eloquently spoke about her experience of breastfeeding alongside breastfeeding expert Lynne Hall,the camera panned over to Rachel, where her rocking of the young tot made her almost immediately stop crying.

It led viewers to praise the BBC star for her “Baby Whisperer” abilities.

Jem Monkey tweeted: “Excellent baby skills! Well done #bbcbabywhisperer.”