Claire Byrne has said that she was "in shock" for months after learning she was pregnant with her second child, feeling that she'd "never survive" the experience of childbirth a second time.
Speaking to Jen Hogan in The Irish Times about raising her family, the RTÉ broadcaster and host of Today with Claire Byrne was candid about how parenthood changed her life, and how blindsided she initially was by the the difficulties of it.
She touched on how little she knew about the realities of parenting before having her own children, a sentiment many women can relate to. "When I had my first child, the change was just colossal, and I don't know how many times I asked myself, How do people do this every day and not tell us what it's like?", she said.
Byrne also recalled the experience of childbirth, which she called "terrible".
"I felt like at one stage I was in the Exorcist movie and this thing was going to throw me off the hospital bed. You can't explain it. It's like a car crash happening inside your body."
With this in mind, Byrne was seemingly content with just one child.
"I went through such a shock in my life when my boy was born, that I thought, 'That can never happen to me again because I'll never survive it the second time.'" However, Byrne added that she found out shortly afterwards that she was pregnant again, sending her into a state of shock for "about three or four months".
Touching on the difficulty of raising children while expecting another one, Byrne recalled a "very distinct memory" of carrying her son Patrick, who was then 10 months up, up the stairs while pregnant with her daughter Jane and feeling the kicks from inside her.
"I was struggling up the stairs pulling on the banister thinking 'This is too much. This is too hard.'
"And then I did it again and I had number three", she added. "I think actually the truth is, if I'd started earlier, I probably would have had four children."
Byrne, who has three children, added that while she's "thrilled" with her family, she "probably would have lived a very happy life without children".
She explained that she went into parenthood "quite late", having met her husband in her mid-30s: "so I didn't factor having children in as a given."
The radio host reflected on life before children, and how she "lived an adult life up to the age of 38" before feeling everything change.
"I know what that freedom is like, and I know now that I don't have that freedom. I know what the pros and cons are."
Althought calling children "a wonderful gift", she added that she remembered "what having an adult life is like".
