Depression During Pregnancy - Ashley Graham & Shay Mitchell Open Up About The Experience

TV personality Ashley Graham and Pretty Little Liars fame, Shay Mitchell have definitely come to the rescue of a lot of women out there, who seem to struggle with depression during pregnancy. Considering how celebrities are usually very protective and secretive about the struggles they face which seemingly is an infamous trend, it indeed is a huge feat that Graham and Mitchell have been open, honest and sharing about their experiences.

Mitchell 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." 

Mitchell 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." 

Graham 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."