Hayden Panettiere’s Postnatal Depression Battle: “It’s Something That Needs To Be Talked About”
The actress has opened up about her experience with the condition for the first time. [Photo: Getty]
Postnatal depression is thought to affect around one in 10 mums in the first few months after childbirth. But despite it being fairly common, a great many women still prefer to keep quiet about it.
Not Hayden Panettiere. The actress, who gave birth to her daughter Kaya in December 2014, has revealed that she suffered from the condition and wants other affected mothers to know that they aren’t alone in their struggles.
“I suffered a bit of postpartum depression,” she admitted in a questionnaire conducted by US Weekly. “You’re not alone or crazy, ladies!”
Incidentally, the 26-year-old’s character in “Nashville” has also battled postnatal depression, quite possibly as Panettiere’s way of educating the show’s viewers.
Towards the end of season three, her character Juliette Barnes was depicted as violently descending into a pit of depression, coming to a head in a scene where she throws a glass object at her husband while he’s holding their baby.
Panettiere’s finance shared this sweet snapshot on his Insta account. [Photo: Instagram/Wladimir Klitschko]
Panettiere appeared on “Live! with Kelly and Michael” yesterday to talk through her experience with the illness. With the aim of letting women know that they’re not alone in their suffering and it is something that does “heal”, she acknowledged that it’s a spectrum and every mum is affected differently.
“I can very much relate. It’s something a lot of women experience. When [you’re told] about postpartum depression you think it’s, ‘I feel negative feelings towards my child, I want to injure or hurt my child’ – I’ve never, ever had those feelings. Some women do.
“But you don’t realise how broad of a spectrum you can really experience that on. It’s something that needs to be talked about. Women need to know that they’re not alone, and that it does heal.”
She added that there’s “a lot of misunderstanding” surrounding this particular type of depression.
“There’s a lot of people out there that think that it’s not real, that it’s not true, that it’s something that’s made up in their minds, that ‘Oh, it’s hormones’. They brush it off.
“It’s something that’s completely uncontrollable. It’s really painful and it’s really scary and women need a lot of support. Women are amazing. We do something that no man can do on this planet. I mean, we grow a human being in our body!”
The 26-year-old looks glowing and gorgeous since becoming a mum at the end of last year. [Photo: Getty]
Despite her brush with postnatal depression, Panettiere hopes to add to her brood by having up to three more children with her heavyweight boxing champion finance Wladimir Klitschko.
“I always said four,” she said on the US breakfast TV show. “But I’m not going to speak too soon. One at a time.
“I mean, I would love it if Wlad figured out a way to get pregnant and he could have the baby.”
Postnatal depression can affect any mums - and dads, too. It’s quite common for symptoms to go unnoticed and many people don’t realise they have it, even though they don’t feel quite right.
Symptoms are wide-ranging and include difficulty sleeping, mood swings and feeling unable to cope. You can read more about it on the NHS’s website.
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