Mother-of-six Madeleine West shows off her ENORMOUS baby bump

Neighbours star and mother-of-six Madeleine West has shared rarely-seen photos from when she was heavily pregnant with her twins, Xahlia and Margaux, in 2014.

In the images, which she posted to Instagram on Monday, the 40-year-old actress flaunted her enormous baby bump while standing beside a hospital bed.

She explained in the captioned that she’d decided to share the pictures after turning down the opportunity to do a magazine shoot about women celebrating middle age.

‘Six weeks ago a glossy magazine asked to photograph me, celebrating my bodies transition into the middle years, after six babies, and 21 years on screen,’ she wrote.

Madeline said the thought of wearing slinky gym gear or a bikini instantly made her think about going on a strict diet and hitting the gym.

‘I was flattered and terrified… my mind calculated: “If I alter my diet, remove all carbs, sugar, fats and fun. I can do this,”‘ she wrote.

She added that she was also considering getting a facial and Botox before the shoot.

However, she eventually decided against taking part, because she didn’t see it as an opportunity to truly celebrate her own body.

‘How is this celebrating my body and what it can do? When as a working mum entering her middle years I’ve neither the time nor the inclination to do this,’ she said. 

Madeleine instead decided that the photos of her shortly before giving birth to her twins more accurately ‘celebrates my body and what it is capable of’.

Madeleine shares her six children, Phoenix, 14, Hendrix, 12, Xascha, 10, Xanthe, eight, and Margaux and Xalia, five, with her ex-partner, chef Shannon Bennett. 

Speaking about her split from Shannon last year, she told The Kyle and Jackie O Show their needs no longer aligned after more than a decade together.

‘I’m a big believer that everything in life has a season. We change. We evolve,’ she said. ‘At some point we go, “Well, I have certain needs I want to have met and you’ve got certain needs and if the two don’t combine and cross in the middle, why fight it and be miserable?”

‘I don’t think that’s fair to the children either to see two parents that are constantly across purposes.’