ShutterstockNew moms to the rescue!
Ashley Graham and Shay Mitchell are two strong women who have been open, honest and real about their experiences being pregnant and their journey to motherhood. The two sat down for an in-depth discussion on Ashley's podcast Pretty Big Deal with Ashley Graham and talked about topics ranging from their careers to the fears and joys of becoming a mom for the first time.
Shay gave birth to her first child, a baby girl, in October of 2019, and while she is in love with her new daughter, the experience of childbirth and pregnancy didn't come without its own unique trials. "I want to talk about something that you had said and I think you said the term prepartum depression," Ashely revealed. "I want to talk about this, because I can't say definitely that I went through it, but I can say that I might have gone through something like it."
"Because here I am, I'm pregnant and it's not like I was trying to get pregnant or I wasn't trying. It just happened so it was a surprise," she continued. "Then all of the sudden my emotions, my mind, my body, things that I always had control over are now totally out of whack. I can't talk to anybody about it, my husband doesn't understand but he's trying to be as supportive as possible. My mom is like, 'Oh you'll be fine.' I think I was spiraling a little bit and I was crying a lot."
All of these feelings seem all too familiar for Shay who experienced similar things during her pregnancy. "I mean every single thing that you just said is exactly what I went through. My mom said the same thing, and I'd be crying to her and she'd be like, 'You're just emotional, it's just the hormones.' And okay cool it might be, but you don't want to hear that. Like, yes it is, if it is the hormones I'm still feeling that way. It doesn't take away from this feeling, and it's completely isolating."
Shay also shared how her emotions coupled with the pain of her previous miscarriage only added to her feelings of distress. "Because of the experience I'd gone through before with the miscarriage, I didn't want to tell my closest friends that I was pregnant this time because the thought of having to go back to them after and being like, 'It didn't happen this time again," was really a painful thought for me. So I just thought I'll keep it to myself for as long as possible...It was just really lonely."
The two found solace in their shared experience. "It's a really crazy period that I don't think people talk about enough," Shay shared. "I heard so much about postpartum which is also a real thing, but I'd never heard about prepartum depression."
Ashley also revealed that her empowering body positive photo during her pregnancy came after her own personal fight with her emotions. "I had just finished a crying session and then I posted that," Ashley shared of the powerful photo. "I think in that moment what I wanted to do was use social media to find a community that wasn't just about body positivity. It was more so about I'm in this space that I'm not happy, but I'm going to talk about it."