Shay Mitchell is ‘nervous’ to have baby #2 for mental health reasons

For Shay Mitchell’s latest pregnancy announcement click here. 

At the end of her pregnancy, Shay Mitchell opened up about the mental health struggles she faced while expecting, like feelings of isolation, anxiety that came from a previous miscarriage, prenatal depression and the fear of postpartum depression that loomed.

Mitchell gave birth in October of 2019, but that doesn’t mean she’s forgotten about the deep mental health challenges she faced while expecting her daughter, Atlas. The actress recently shared more about those feelings—and how they still weigh on her.

“When I was probably like three, four, five months [pregnant], those were probably like the worst times. I was almost just like ‘oh my gosh, I’m now going to be a mom’. And now being a mom, of course, I’m like ‘this is amazing, I feel like a superwoman’. But before I was, I was scared because I was like ‘you can’t go back’,” Mitchell said during a recently released episode of the podcast Katie’ Crib, which was recorded when Atlas was just five months old.

“There was a lot of ‘is this going to change my lifestyle? Is this going to change how people look at me?'”

Everything Mitchell is saying is so relatable. A year later, Mitchell recorded a follow-up episode of the podcast, in which she opened up about her experience with pregnancy and early motherhood, as well as where she stands on having another child.

“I mean, 100 percent,” Mitchell said when asked if she wants to have a second baby.

But the actress also got real about how the thought of experiencing another pregnancy (and all the emotional repercussions that can come with it) is tough for her.

“It was hard for me. It was hard to be pregnant, as it is for everyone, I’m sure,” she said. “I have so many mixed feelings about how I felt, and some of it is blurry to me now. That’s obviously what [happens] so we get pregnant again. It completely wipes your memory… For the majority of it I was so blessed and liked a lot of it, but the parts that I didn’t like [I’m going be honest] and say it: I want a sibling [for Atlas] so bad, but I don’t want to go through pregnancy again. I wasn’t that beaming goddess that loved it. I don’t want to do it again because it took a toll on me mentally.”

Mitchell also touched on the difference between experiencing prepartum depression and postpartum depression. While the latter is something we discuss a lot, the former is a condition many people have never even heard of.

“I had prepartum,” Mitchell said. “Not post, pre. And that was something I didn’t know back then. I only heard [about postpartum depression], so I was preparing myself for that. But then when I was upset and not feeling my best during, I was like ‘wait, what’s this? Nobody talked about this. I should be so happy right now’. So I’m nervous to go back into it.”

Her points are spot on, and we applaud Mitchell for bringing her voice to the important conversation surrounding mental health issues during pregnancy—not just after. According to the Mayo Clinic, about 7 percent of expectant mothers experience prepartum depression—and it’s about time we started talking more about it.