Neha Dhupia: If you are going through postpartum depression, you need to talk about it

Actor Neha Dhupia feels talking about postpartum depression is important, and wants to encourage new mothers to address it without any hesitation.

“The thing about postpartum depression is that you don’t come to terms with it. Sometimes, you are busy and preoccupied to address it, and sometimes you are just told that ‘Hey, you just had a baby, and that’s why it is just hormones and a mix bunch of emotions’,” Dhupia tells us.

The actor, who welcomed her second child, a son, with husband Angad Bedi in October, adds that it is imperative for new mums to talk about postpartum depression. “If you are going through it, you need to talk about it, reach out, get your life back. There is nothing wrong with wanting to do the things that you were doing earlier (before pregnancy),” she says.

She feels “other mums also need to be encouraged to speak about it. Because as soon as you have the child, you get so overwhelmed, whether it is about feeding or looking after the baby’s needs”.

Dhupia says that as soon as you have a child, “you get overwhelmed, whether it is about feeding or looking after the baby’s need”, and amid all this, “the most neglected person is the mother herself”.

The 41-year-old says, “I have gone through it. I knew what I was heading into with my second pregnancy and with postpartum for the second time in my life, so I addressed it differently. But everyone around needs to be so much more conscious about what the mother goes through,” she asserts.

Talking about the importance of self-love after having a baby, the actor says a new mom needs to be looked after, too. “You have to make sure that the mother is equally well looked after. Self love is the biggest thing about being a mom, a new mom. There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of self love. I feel like that also is a huge point at which we can move away from postpartum,” adds the actor, who has also initiated the movement of freedom to feed.