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Shay Mitchell is opening up about the prenatal depression [3] she experienced while she was pregnant with her now-1-year-old daughter, Atlas [4]. In an interview on Katie Lowes's podcast, Katie's Crib [5], Shay shared that she struggled with prenatal depression — which affects roughly seven percent of parents in the United States [6] — and was worried she would potentially experience postpartum depression.
"I struggled with [prenatal depression], so that was something that was difficult," she said, mentioning that at around four months pregnant she really began to struggle with her identity as a mother and felt alone. "And I actually thought I was gonna have a hard time with [postpartum depression]. Just because, I don't know, I had an inkling."
However, Shay mentioned that having help — like hiring a night nurse for the month after Atlas was born — made the transition into motherhood a lot smoother. "Because of the help that we are really fortunate to have, it's made it a lot easier," she said.
In part two of the interview, Shay reflected further on the challenging parts of her pregnancy [8], noting that she's apprehensive about potentially going through some of those low points again, despite "100 percent" wanting another child in the future.
"For the majority of it, I was so blessed and liked a lot of it, but the parts that I didn't like, I'm like, 'Aww man. Wow.' And I'm gonna be honest and say it, I want a sibling [for Atlas] so bad, but I don't want to go through pregnancy again," she said. "I wasn't that beaming goddess that absolutely loved it. I don't want to do it again because it took a toll on me mentally.
"I had prepartum [depression], not post, pre, and that was something that I didn't know back then. I only heard [of] postpartum, so I was preparing myself for that. But then when I was upset and not feeling my best during, I was like, 'Wait, what's this? Nobody talked about this! I should be so happy right now.' So I'm nervous to go back into it for that again."