Halle Bailey Reveals Quiet And Daunting Battle With Postpartum Depression
Singer and actress Halle Bailey is known for her upbeat attitude and light-hearted demeanor. However, after giving birth to her son, Halo, with rapper DDG, Bailey shared she’d been quietly navigating postpartum depression.
She took to social media to share her experience. “I look at him [Halo] and I cry because of how special he is. The only thing that has been hard for me is feeling normal in my own body. It’s crazy. I feel like a completely different person when I look in the mirror, I just feel like I’m in a whole new body. I don’t know who I am.”
The 24-year-old new mommy admitted that before becoming a mom, she’d let most mothers' postpartum conversations “go in one ear and out the other.” She said, “I think there’s some things to be said about what women go through, especially after having a child and building and creating this beautiful new life and what happens to us and our well-beings right after. I do think that there’s a little bit of a stigma when you hear about postpartum.”
Bailey feels as if she’s flailing. She shared, “It almost feels like you’re swimming in this ocean that’s the biggest waves you’ve ever felt, and you’re trying not to drown, and you’re trying to come up for air. You have those moments where you come up for air and they’re like the most beautiful things and it’s great. Then, you have those moments where you’re drowning in it. It has nothing to do with my baby, it has everything to do with me and who I am right now.”
Even though things can look peachy from the outside–Bailey has a supportive family and a Halo’s devoted dad, DDG—she even has a new musical she’s working on alongside Pharrell Williams. Life’s good. But when it comes to depression, it doesn’t matter how good life is. Postpartum doesn’t have boundaries.
Here’s to Halle Bailey and the mothers out there just like her who feel the brunt of postpartum depression.