For Corinna Jennings Mother's Day will be a very special celebration.

After the birth of her twins Maisie and Alfie, she stuggled to cope but was scared to tell anyone how she felt in case they took her children away.

By the time they were six months old, Corinna had became so depressed she considered taking her own life.

But treatment at a specialist mother and baby mental health unit, where she and the twins were cared for together, has helped her get her life back on track.

Corinna, 34, from Baguley, has bravely decided to talk about her battle with depression to try to help others struggling with the same condition.

Corinna, who plans to cook lunch for her own mother tomorrow, said: “When they were three months old it got particularly tough and looking back now it is hard to put into words.

“I just had no interest in being a mother. I would feed them and bathe them and it was almost robotic. I did it because I had to, not because I wanted to.

“I couldn’t get up in the morning. I felt that there was no light at the end of the tunnel and I’d go to bed every night and pray that I wasn’t going to wake up. One day I decided just to get a train anywhere and hide away and kill myself. That was my plan.”

Corinna, who has a 16-year-old daughter Abbie, had IVF treatment before becoming pregnant with the twins. She was very excited about being a mother again but after a difficult birth she struggled to bond with the babies and her GP gave her anti-depressants.

Her husband Mark became so worried about her that in February last year he took her to A&E, where she was assessed by an emergency psychiatric service called PEARL.

She was monitored by a home treatment team but after a further breakdown she was referred to Manchester Mental Health Trust's mother and babies service.

She stayed at the unit at Wythenshawe Hospital for seven weeks.

She said: “I don’t know where I would be if I hadn’t gone in there. I had always been scared of telling anybody the symptoms of my illness because I was afraid they would take my kids away but I spoke to the psychiatrist there and she reassured me that it was normal.

“Although it was a difficult time I actually have good memories of Mother's Day last year – the nurses made us all cards and they were very kind.”

Although Corinna feels much better now she is still need medication and counselling.