In a recent interview with Good Housekeeping, Gwen Paltrow opened up about her experiences with postpartum depression after the birth of her second child, Moses. Originally attributing her feelings to grief over the loss of her father and anxiety over raising a son, she eventually – with the help of her husband – identified the issues as postpartum depression.
“The hardest part for me was acknowledging the problem,” she says. “I thought postpartum depression meant you were sobbing every single day and incapable of looking after a child. But there are different shades of it and depths of it, which is why I think it’s so important for women to talk about. It was a trying time. I felt like a failure.”
I suffered postpartum anxiety after the birth of each of my children. Because, with my second, the issues arose almost eight months after his birth, I struggled to identify what was going on. It took me a while to get into therapy and really start taking care of myself.
While Gwyneth Paltrow’s fairytale life might seem out of reach and difficult to relate to, it’s wonderful that she’s raised her voice to shed light on the “many shades” of PPD. Many women fail to recognize warning signs or brush them off as “the baby blues” when a bigger issue is at hand. Paltrow says that fitness and therapy played a big part in her recovery. If you feel that you’re experiencing symptoms of postpartum depression or anxiety, talk to your doctor and your partner. Help is out there.
How old is Moses? Isn’t he like 3 or 4? Wonder why she is sharing this information now? Interesting!