'I was traumatised from the birth' - Mary Black opens up about post-natal depression

Black has three children with her husband Joe O'Reilly; Conor, Danny and Roisin, and spoke about her struggle with post-natal depression following the birth of 38-year-old Conor.

'That was a rough time; we were delighted when Conor arrived... I think I was traumatised from the birth, it took a while, but I began to not feel great in myself and for a long time I denied it, I'd think ah I'm just down in the dumps," she said on The Late Late Show.

But I remember looking at him when he was a baby and thinking it was a terrible world I was bringing him into; you'd be watching terrible things on television and you were vulnerable to that. I became so worried about things that I shouldn't have been worrying about – everything was fine, but in your head you're not fine.

"So eventually I had a bit of a meltdown and I needed to go for help. It was post-natal depression, and it was a very frightening thing because it brought on... Depression or post-natal depression or any sort of depression, it wasn't talked about... It was frightening and I didn't know much myself about it and luckily my doctor sent me to somebody for help."

She told Ryan Tubridy that she was sharing her story to help other mums and show that 'there is a light at the end of the tunnel'.

"I think it's important to talk about it, there's still a bit of stigma attached to mental illness, even though more and more people are talking about it but I think it's important because nobody goes through life with everything wonderful all the time – it's not like that."

"I tried to balance the home life – it was hard. It was hard leaving the kids. That was the hardest part of everything in my career, particularly when they were younger, it was heartbreaking," Black said.

"On the other hand, I wouldn't have been complete as a person had I not continued what I did, because I always loved singing; it was a big part of who I was.