"If you don’t take time to tend to your wellness, you will be forced to take time to tend to your illness. If you feel unwell, mama or not, I encourage you to speak up! Because the way you want to live and the way you want to feel is just on the other side of that.”
In an inspirational Instagram post, Canadian mom blogger Olivia Murray has opened up about her post-partum challenges, while encouraging other women to speak up and not give in to the pressure of putting up a perfect façade.
Striking a pose with in her hospital-issued underwear and breastfeeding her baby, she added that she wanted to break the stereotype of perfect bodies, “They’ll know what society likes the woman to look like, but also what a pregnant and breastfeeding and postpartum woman looks like, the woman/mama who is happy and healthy and thriving, but also the woman/mama that’s struggling and tired and trying.”
She remarked that while she wasn’t fond of the terms “real women” “real bodies”, she wanted to capture the moment as it was “important to me that (both) my children know what women really look like, what bodies really do.”
A lot of celebrities as well have also spoken out about post partum depression, including Serena Williams. As Dr Chhabria explained to Express Parenting, the disorder often goes untreated as many women fail to recognise the symptoms. She cautioned, “A women left untreated will never come back to her original level of functioning.”
Speaking up about her experience with postpartum depression, Murray said, “I wanted to share that this week I was diagnosed with mild-moderate postpartum depression. Knowing numerous women who have experienced this, I knew the signs and was open to the chances (although you kind of always think “not me” though). It’s not going to become a dark, gloomy place here. I still like pretty pictures and love my kids and have good days. But I stopped feeling hungry, being happy, getting ANY rest, wanting to do things, believing I was a good mother, or getting any work done — in the last couple weeks and I feel as though we have a duty to be honest about some things in this space, in order to not misconstrue how real life unfolds.”
It’s okay if women chose “vulnerability more often and admitted we aren’t doing 100% IN THE MOMENT sometimes”, instead of faking being perfect and happy when they weren’t feeling up to it.
Encouraging others to speak up, she offered, “So here I am, TRYING to keep it to the point and sharing just that — in case there’s anyone on the other side of this screen that needs the push to admit they’re not feeling well, or get help, or even for those who HAVE and just need to know that other people are going through sh*t, look like sh*t, feel like sh*t too. If you don’t take time to tend to your wellness, you will be forced to take time to tend to your illness. If you feel unwell, mama or not, I encourage you to speak up! Because the way you want to live and the way you want to feel is just on the other side of that.”
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