Christina Applegate recalls daughter's birth

Christina Applegate has said that welcoming her baby girl is the "best thing that's ever happened" to her.

The Samantha Who? actress gave birth to daughter Sadie Grace, her first child with musician fiancé Martyn LeNoble, at the end of January.

During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, airing Tuesday, the star revealed that her labour lasted for around 18 hours, and said that her initial plan to have an epidural never happened.

"I didn't like the feeling of numbness; it was really creepy to me. It was too much so we turned it off and I opted for go all the way! Feeling it all!" she said.

The 39-year-old, who previously underwent a double mastectomy after a battle with breast cancer, went on to say that holding her daughter for the first time was an incredible experience.

"Just that moment, pulling her out, I dropped my gown, which I don't do," she recalled. "[My chest] is very private to me. That's a real private place; it's a place that I don't have a good relationship with, let's say.

"But at that moment of pulling her out, I just tore that [gown] off. There's a room full of people that I don't know - nurses and doctors - and she and I just laid there. It was the best thing that's ever happened to me."

She recently thanked her fans for their messages of congratulations on Twitter, writing: "Thank you for all the sweet words about Miss Sadie. She is truly remarkable. I could stare at her for days on end!"