Tilda Swinton thinks childbirth is "violent"

The 50-year-old actress - who has 13-year-old twins Honor and Xavier with partner John Byrne - believes Hollywood glamorises birth, which is actually a "murderous" experience.

She said: "In movies, and particularly in television films, when people have babies they are sitting in a hospital room and there are flowers everywhere.

"They are made up, magically, and they have a baby in their arms and it's all really lovely. They start getting pink baby clothes. It's a truly, truly murderous business. It's violent."

The Oscar-winning actress - who portrays a mother who fails to bond with her son in forthcoming movie 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' - thinks women who are unable to "embrace" the nature of child birth may find themselves "up a gum tree" because of how hard it is.

Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, she said: "If one doesn't embrace that [violence], if one can't embrace it - and it's really tough to do that - then you're up a gum tree because it means you're going to be cutting off a whole part of yourself."