Helena Christensen has revealed motherhood worries used to drive her "crazy".

The supermodel - who has a 10-year-old son Mingus with her ex-husband, former Prada model-and-actor Norman Reedus - constantly fretted about what she would be like as a parent when she was pregnant and what sort of child she would have.

She said: "The responsibility is so heavy if you think about it. If you think too much about it, it drives you crazy."

However, the 41-year-old Danish beauty's concerns were unfounded as Mingus is very well-behaved.

She added: "I'm not a strict parent. Mingus hasn't challenged me in that way - he hasn't demanded something that I would find totally ridiculous."

And Helena's laid back approach proved useful recently when Mingus found a snake in New York and wanted to bring it home.

She explained to Babble.com: "He said, 'We have to bring it home.' So I had to empty a water bottle, and in it went.

"Then I took it to the pet store, and they identified it. It's not a cobra, so we took it home and it's now living in a big cage, and I have to buy grasshoppers every week."

Helena advises new moms to "just let it happen" and the relationship between mother and child will develop naturally.

She said: "All [kids] really want is love and routine and a good night's sleep and delicious food. As long as [kids] feel they're being loved, I think they can deal with anything.

"But I don't know how to give advice. When you have a child, you learn something new every day and I couldn't give any precise rules because there aren't any. Every child is different. You're different."