The problem is that
Google comes up with articles on Bryce Dallas Howard (I guess Google can’t tell
the difference between “Dallas”, the name of a person, and “Dallas”, the name
of a city). I didn’t know much about Bryce, and especially didn’t know why she
would show up in a search for “Postpartum depression Dallas”. So I decided to read up on her.
Bryce Dallas Howard
is the daughter of director Ron Howard.
Her acting credits include Spiderman
3, Eclipse and The Help. Bryce was born in Los Angeles but was conceived
in Dallas, so she was given the name Bryce Dallas.
Bryce is a survivor
of Postpartum Depression. This is an excerpt
from an article
that came up in one of our Google searches. It appeared in People
Magazine in July 2010.
“I loved being pregnant. Yes, I
threw up every day for six months, and yes, the stretch marks were (and still
are) obscene. But I treasured every moment I had with this new life growing
inside me. “Although the state of bliss continued throughout the pregnancy,
those feelings suddenly came to a screeching halt moments after Howard
delivered her son. “Nothing. I felt
nothing,” she reveals.
“For me, breastfeeding was even more painful
than giving birth. And despite a lactation consultant, I felt incompetent,” she
recalls. “I forged on, barely sleeping, always either breastfeeding or pumping
and never getting the hang of it. Occasionally I drifted off for a few minutes,
but that decision to ‘feed at all costs’ left me no room for recovery.”
The signs of postpartum depression
were all there — including referring to her baby as ‘it’ and emotional
breakdowns — but Howard managed to hide it all from her family and friends by
keeping her feelings bottled up until she was alone.
“For the sake of those around me,
including my son, I pretended, but when I began showering again in the second
week, I let loose in the privacy of the bathroom, water flowing over me as I
heaved uncontrollable sobs,” she reveals.
Believing herself to be a “rotten
mother — not a bad one, a rotten one, because the truth was, every time I
looked at my son, I wanted to disappear,” the severity of the situation reached
its peak when Howard’s friend stepped in. “It wasn’t until my ‘shower
breakdowns’ began to manifest out in the open that people began to worry,”
Howard explains.
Eventually a visit to her midwife —
and a trip to the doctor — allowed Howard to find the help she needed. And in
addition to “a homeopathic treatment plan,” the actress admits it was her dive
back into the entertainment industry that allowed her to begin the healing
process.
Now a happy mother of a 3-year-old
toddler, Howard is quick to point out her battle with postpartum depression is
something she will never forget.
“Do I wish I had never endured
postpartum depression? Absolutely. But to deny the experience is to deny who I
am,” she states. “I still mourn the loss of what could have been, but I also
feel deep gratitude for those who stood by me, for the lesson that we must
never be afraid to ask for help, and for the feeling of summer that still
remains.”
I’m glad that Bryce
and other celebrities have been willing to share their experiences with
Postpartum Depression (even if it sometimes messes with my search results). The more moms hear about others, especially celebrities,
who have survived Postpartum Depression, the easier it is for them to realize
that help is available, that they are not a bad mother, and that they will
recover. Still… it might be nice if
Bryce had been conceived in Albuquerque instead of Dallas.
