What to Know
Pregnancy and motherhood are beautiful gifts that many women long for. The second a mother sees her baby for the first time, they form an incredible bond and a love that never seemed possible before. Motherhood isn’t easy, and the first few days, weeks, months, and even years can be particularly difficult.
Postpartum depression is real, and mothers often suffer in silence, fearing what might happen if they tell the truth. Even celebrities like Reese Witherspoon, who seem to have everything under control, struggle. She recently opened up about her days as a young mom and how she dealt with her confusing feelings.
Witherspoon became a mom in her early twenties
She and her ex-husband, Ryan Phillipe, welcomed their daughter Ava in 1999 when Witherspoon was 23 years old. Witherspoon’s hormones raged, and she found herself with so many mixed emotions.
“It was really bad,” Witherspoon told Harper’s Bazaar. “In the first six months, I was simultaneously happy and depressed. I just cried all the time, I was up all night, I was exhausted.”
Witherspoon felt judged even by those with good intentions.
Like many moms, Witherspoon found herself getting bombarded with advice and information from so many people about what she should and shouldn’t do for her baby.
“Everyone has an opinion. It’s hard being a young mom and having people tell you how to be, how to react, how to give birth, how to nurse and how to feed your baby. It’s inundating,” she explained.
A friend encouraged her to seek help for her mental health, and she remains grateful for the advice.
Depression runs in Witherspoon’s family.
Witherspoon’s mother, a pediatric nurse, made sure her daughter knew about the family history. Her maternal grandmother, Dorthea Draper, became a stay-at-home mom and found herself depressed as a young mother. Witherspoon’s mother warned her daughter to watch for symptoms herself.
“She had been this well-educated woman who was then left alone with two little kids while her husband went to work,” Witherspoon recalled. “She got really depressed. My mom was honest with me and said, ‘You need to be careful. This could be genetic.’
After identifying her mental health needs, Witherspoon treated her depression appropriately.
She credits her mother’s no-nonsense approach to life.
“My mom never talked about mental health in a way that made it feel untouchable, unspeakable or taboo; she was almost clinical about it. When I was a teenager, she would proactively ask whether I was sexually active, about birth control,” she explained.
Witherspoon’s daughter is now 27 years old. She went on to have a son, Deacon, with Phillipe in 2003, and a son, Tennessee James Toth, with ex-husband Jim Toth. She added that her mother’s ability to speak with her frankly made her the mom she is.
“I don’t beat around the bush. If something is on my mind or I’m concerned, I’m always going to be that person who pushes the edges and asks the hard questions,” she said.
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