'I felt that I would crack': Jessica Alba reveals her struggle with motherhood as she poses for stunning shoot

By Amelia Proud

Last updated at 8:03 AM on 13th December 2011

It's not often that a celebrity is brave enough to admit they struggle like the rest of us, especially when it comes to motherhood.

Often they emerge with their beauteous offspring looking slender, polished and refreshed; without a hint of baby weight or frazzle from sleepless nights.

So it's refreshing that a creature as ravishing as Jessica Alba can admit that there were times after giving birth to her first-born that she: 'Felt she would crack.'

Honesty: For all her movie star looks, Jessica Alba has been truthful about the travails of being a first-time mother in her interview with InStyle Australia

The 30-year-old Spy Kids star even happily admits to having a nanny, and makes the shock admission that being a mother is a difficult juggling act for a working woman.

Alba, who has been married to director Cash Warren, 32 , for four years, admitted she found it hard initially after giving birth to her eldest girl. Honor, who is now three.

The actress, who welcomed baby Haven in August, told InStyle Australia as she posed for a beautiful photo shoot: 'It's overwhelming. I don't consider myself a lot of the time. I think a lot of mums do that, try to be everything to everyone all the time.

'I make mistakes. I do try to do way too much.'

Exotic flower: Alba looks incredible in the stunning LA-based shoot, particularly in this green floral dress and blue rose necklace

And she said od second time around motherhood: 'I'm more relaxed, every sneeze or runny nose or little bump on the head that would have freaked me out before…I am more easygoing with that sort of thing.

And the sense of knowing that I can get Haven to stop crying. It was all new with Honor and I wasn't confident, and she could feel that so she continued to cry. That didn't happen a lot, but when it happened I felt like I would crack.'

Alba also opened up about her struggle with gaining weight when she first became pregnant.

She said: '[When I was pregnant] with Honor, I didn't make the healthiest choices when it came to eating.'

Cover girl: The mother-of-two creates her own brand of magic on the cover of the Australian style bible

'All of a sudden, I had gained over [30 kilos]. I stopped weighing myself after that.

With Haven I didn't gain as much, so [afterward] I was closer to where I felt comfortable in my own skin.'

But she added that becoming a mother has been the making of her: 'I felt completely different. I really came into myself as a person. Before, I was always working for my identity. And then you take the focus off of yourself. I was probably, definitely, a bit of a narcissist.

When you are young and an actor and driven, it's a bizarre state of mind to be in at times. I was so focused on things that didn't matter at the end of the day. Now I have what I do for a living in perspective. Working was everything to me, my entire identity, and once I got to step away from it, everything changed.'

For more from Miss Alba, go to www.instylemag.com.au/Article/Fashion/Latest-News/InStyle-cover-girl-Jessica-Alba