Hayden Panettiere: ‘Nashville’ Star Opens Up About Postpartum Depression

Hayden Panettiere, the star of the hit television show Nashville, opened up about her experience with postpartum depression during a recent interview with Kelly Rippa and Michael Strahan on Monday’s episode of Live! With Kelly and Michael.

Panettiere gave birth to her daughter Kaya Klitschko in December, and quickly realized she had a lot more in common with her Nashville character Juliette Barnes than she once thought. She revealed that she experienced symptoms of postpartum depression following Kaya’s birth.

.@HaydenPanettiere opens up about her postpartum depression: http://t.co/quACoRwrUT pic.twitter.com/xcEYQkZdvc

— Glamour (@glamourmag) September 29, 2015

According to WebMD,post-partum depression is a “temporary depression related to pregnancy and childbirth.” There are two forms women can experience. The first is early onset, which is also commonly referred to as the “baby blues,” and affects as many as 80 percent of women after labor. Generally, early onset doesn’t require treatment, and will resolve itself after a couple of weeks.

However, there is a more severe form of postpartum depression that can take longer to recover from and oftentimes requires medication and other forms of treatment. The latter typically shows signs a couple weeks after giving birth, and affects 10 to 16 percent of women. Some common signs of the illness are sadness, anxiety, tearfulness, and trouble sleeping.

“It’s something I can very much relate to,” Panettiere told Kelly and Michael. “It’s something a lot of women experience. When [you are told] about postpartum depression you think it’s ‘I feel negative feelings towards my child; I want to injure or hurt my child.’ I’ve never, ever had those feelings. Some women do. But you don’t realize how broad of a spectrum you can really experience that on. It’s something that needs to be talked about. Women need to know that they’re not alone, and that it does heal.”

Hayden Panettiere on postpartum depression: “It’s really painful — and it’s really scary.” http://t.co/uAi9mjGYbQ pic.twitter.com/HO8lLcYHKL

— Us Weekly (@usweekly) September 29, 2015

Panettiere also spoke about the stigma associated with the illness that tends to keep women suffering in silence. The 26-year-old actress explained that it is a very real thing that is out of your control.

“There’s a lot of people out there that think that it’s not real, that it’s not true, that it’s something that’s made up in their minds, that ‘Oh, it’s hormones.’ They brush it off,” she said. “It’s something that’s completely uncontrollable. It’s really painful and it’s really scary and women need a lot of support.”

Despite her experience with postpartum depression, Hayden said she would love to have more kids. Ideally, she would have four with her fiancé Wladimir Klitschko.

“Women are amazing. We do something that no man can do on this planet. I mean, we grow a human being in our body!”

Hayden continued talking about her future husband, jokingly saying she thinks it would be awesome if the heavyweight champion could be pregnant with their next child/children.

“I would love it if Wlad figured out a way to get pregnant and he could have the baby,” she laughed. “We would be going right now, no problem.”

What do you think about Hayden Panettiere’s openness about her experiences with postpartum depression? Do you think more women should talk about it? Leave your comments below.

[Photo by Mike Windle/Getty Images]