Gwyneth Paltrow & Bryce Dallas Howard Discuss Post-Partum Depression In GOOP

Gwyneth Paltrow has revealed she suffered from postnatal depression following the birth of her second child – son Moses in 2006.

The actress revealed the news in the latest installment of her advice newsletter, GOOP, on Thursday.

“I was confronted with one of the darkest and most painfully debilitating chapters of my life,” Gwyneth wrote of how she felt after her son (with husband Chris Martin of Coldplay) was born. “For about five months I had, what I can see in hindsight as postnatal depression, and since that time, I have wanted to know more about it.”

In the latest GOOP installment, Gwyneth recruited “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” star Bryce Dallas Howard to write a piece – a moving essay about her own post-partum depression following the 2007 birth of her son Theodore, with husband, “Nurse Jackie” guest star Seth Gabel.

Bryce revealed that right after the birth of the baby she was so excited to be pregnant with, she experienced a lack of emotion.

“Nothing,” she wrote of her feelings. “I felt nothing.”

Bryce went on to reveal that she couldn’t even bring herself to call her son by his name, noting, “at that point I mysteriously referred to [Theo] as ‘it,’ even though we had named him. I should have taken that as a sign.”

She added that she felt like she was “suffering emotional amnesia,” unable to “genuinely cry, or laugh, or be moved by anything.”

Seth eventually helped his wife out, and she was treated by a doctor who gave her the official “severe post-partum depression” diagnosis. Bryce revealed group meetings with other moms helped, as did Brooke Shields’ book about her own post-partum depression battle.

The actress said the heavy weight of PPD eventually lifted, and these days things are wonderful, her son, now 3, recently telling her, “‘Theo and Mama are two little peas in a pod!’” she wrote.

“As I sat there giggling with him the miracle of the statement was not lost on me. It’s true. In the face of everything, Theo and I are two little peas in a pod,” she concluded.

To read more about Bryce’s battle, click HERE.

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