Gee, is The Placenta Blog becoming some sort of celebrity hound? Nah, but I figured since I was on a roll here…
Apparently Amanda Peet had some depression issues following the birth of her daughter 18 months ago.
Here’s a snippet of the interview she did for Gotham magazine:
AP: [after I gave birth] I had a fairly serious postpartum depression. I think it was because I had a really euphoric pregnancy.
Interviewer: So, the hormones had been working in your favor.
AP: Yes. I was like a princess and I was just euphoric and productive and I felt really sexy. But it all came crashing down the second she was born. And I was sleep-deprived beyond belief.
Interviewer: You were expecting to feel good?
AP: Fulfilled, yes. And now I want to be honest about it because I think there’s still so much shame when you have mixed feelings about being a mom instead of feeling this sort of “bliss.” I think a lot of people still really struggle with that, but it’s hard to find other people who are willing to talk about it…
I like this last comment especially. I agree that the shame women struggle with when they have any negative feelings at all after the birth of their baby keeps many from talking about it and reaching out. Mothers are held on a pedestal, but without any real support, so oftentimes we are surrounded by all these expectations that are very difficult to meet. Not only our own expectations of motherhood, but also our partners’ and our family’s. It can be so much pressure, and feel so lonely.
I also liked the last sentence, because it really relates to why I started the Placenta Benefits.info website and started talking publicly about using the placenta for postpartum recovery. I found it was helping so many of my clients, but they were very reluctant to talk about it because it was so unusual. So I knew that in order to get the word out to more women, we just had to make it normal and acceptable instead of weird and even taboo.
I know we have a way to go on that, but I’m definitely seeing progress. Now my clients tell everyone about it, because they know that it helped them, and it’s becoming more acceptable to talk about it. I believe that as more women use their placenta, the incidence of postpartum mood disorders will begin to decline. There is no need for 80% of women to have these negative experiences in the first weeks after giving birth. That number can be much, much lower.
