I deal with postpartum feelings by reaching out to mom friends. I became very close with some of the women in my prenatal yoga class.
In fact, during the postpartum period, many mothers don't feel attached towards her new born. So during such times they are quite sensitive and require special care. Still there are people who don't think twice before making hurtful comments about how a mother looks. I fail to understand what satisfaction they get out of body shaming others.
When you study postpartum depression, there is a very clear understanding that in communities where you see more support, there is less depression.
The very damaging, frightening part of postpartum is the lack of perspective and the lack of priority and understanding what is really important.
Do I wish I had never endured postpartum depression? Absolutely. But to deny the experience is to deny who I am.
I went back to work about six weeks after I gave birth, which was crazy early, and experienced some pretty bad postpartum depression but didn't know it at the time.
I talk about postpartum depression and all these things I don't hear a lot of women talking about on TV.
With both kids, I started working out again at 16 days postpartum, but I treated myself with kindness, doing mild workouts, because my fitness level was lower.
I remember, after my first postpartum depression, I didn't know what had happened to me. I was stuck in this gray depression where I just wanted to retreat and pull the covers over my head and weep. My mother and I, we went to a psychiatrist, and he just patted me on the head and told me I had baby blues, which was not helpful, obviously.
This is a serious, serious condition that is also called postpartum psychosis. And that's where, literally, you get so bad that you end up either hurting the baby or killing yourself.
