A mum who experienced burnout after striving to be the "perfect parent" has given her top tips to help others avoid the same fate."

Skye Edwards, 34, was a high-flying, career-driven woman who struggled with the transition into motherhood.

She found it hard to let go of control and felt overwhelmed by the conflicting books and advice on parenting.

Skye felt a pressure to fit her son, now four, into certain routines and to start him on formula milk.

She slowly realised the pressure she was putting on herself to be perfect was causing anxiety and burnout - and is something she labelled 'perfect mother syndrome'.

Now Skye prioritises self-compassion and has relaxed into motherhood - and helps others to do so too.

Skye, a trainee councillor, from Chelmsford, Essex, said: "I always had this fear 'you might mess them up'."

"Every single mother feels judged. No one wants to be a bad parent."

"But then you have issues with perfectionism. They don't know to see it's ok to make mistakes."

"There is a pressure to get it right to nurture our children to such perfection that leaves us little to no room to make any mistakes."

"We're going to mess them up no matter what we do."

"We may as well enjoy it."

"The mother I thought I was going to be before children is different."

"I wanted to have control. They are not a project for me."

"You lose control and you have to lean into it - that's not a bad thing."

Skye felt she had been able to "control" everything in her life before falling pregnant."

She said: "I was a high achieving woman. I had a good career. I was very organised."

"Life was in tip top form - or what it looked like on the outside."

"Everything was in it's order, in it's place."

"During the pregnancy I had this feeling of a lack of control."

"It was dawning on me I was about to be responsible for a tiny person."

Skye was excited to become a mum but overwhelmed by all the advice she read about parenting.

She said: "I have read every book under the sun about parenting."

"I was very well informed, educated on the emotional intelligence of raising little humans."

"It's a blessing and a curse. We're so much more aware."

Skye was very aware that anything she did as a parent would have a profound impact on her child and when she had her son in 2020 her mental health took a plunge.

She said: "I became a shell of a person."

"I was so desperate to get it right."

"I just felt like I was failing in every aspect."

"I felt like it was my baby and I against the world."

Skye says her relationships were impacted as a result and she cried a lot and struggled with sleep.

She felt a pressure to fit routines - and struggled with her son's sleeping issues that didn't fit the moulds she'd read about.

Skye said: "I felt pressure to fit routines."

"I felt pressure of moving onto formula. I felt pressure that they should be eating more or less."

Skye did reach out for a councillor for help but didn't find it helped and instead looked at how she could help herself.

She said: "I comforted myself a lot."

"I gave myself a big dose of self-compassion."

"I started journaling and exercising."

Skye worried she would slip back into her ways when she had the "baby blues" with her daughter, one, but was able to keep on top of her mental health."

She said: "The way you parent one child is not the way you parent the other."

"It's easy to blame yourself."

"People say don't watch TV because of blue light but if sitting with them watching Netflix is going to make them feel more relaxed that's what you should be doing."

"Lean into who you are and who they are and not what you are told to do."

Now Skye is training to be a councillor and hopes she can help other mums experiencing something similar to her.

Skye's advice for parents with 'perfect mother syndrome' -

- Work on your self esteem
- Stop listening to judgement
- Look at your family values
- Give yourself compassion