Julia Haworth's Postpartum Depression Fears Unfounded

Portraying a mom suffering from postpartum depression proved to be emotionally draining for Coronation Street star Julia Haworth. It also left the 29-year-old actress wondering whether she would have a similar experience after welcoming her daughter Sophia Elizabeth, 6 weeks. "No one’s immune," Julia points out in a new interview with The Mirror, "but I hoped I’d be OK…luckily I am." While labor was long and difficult Sophia arrived "safe and well and that’s the main thing," Julia says. "She was worth it…I’d go through every second again." That sunny outlook extends even to her pregnancy, a state of being that Julia says she "loved."

"When people said I was blooming and blossoming, I took it as a compliment…I didn’t mind my body changing. As I got bigger I really celebrated it because it meant the baby was growing and was healthy."

Adding that she wants to be "the best mum in the world," Julia says Sophia is "the center of my life now." She is the first child for Julia and her husband Jon Wormald.

Source: The Mirror

Comments

Congratulations on the birth of her little girl!

It bothers me however, how little society as a whole knows about Postpartum Depression.

PPD can develop during or after pregnancy – it can occur starting within a **year** following delivery – some women won’t develop PPD until several months or more following delivery. Certainly the more time that goes by with no symptoms following delivery, it reduces the likelihood that it will occur.

I have dealt with PPD following 4 of my 6 children. I didn’t have a history of depression prior to childbearing. Twice it started several months following delivery. The third time within weeks and the last time started up 3 months before delivery; over a year later I am still off and on anti-depressants trying to cope with the lingering anxiety.

The first time I didn’t even realize what it was – PPD was not something I had ever heard of 15 years ago. It was not until my second son was born over 8 years ago and I went through it a second time, that my doctor gave it a name. This was 8 months following delivery – though the symptoms had been building for a few months at this point.

I truly hope that she will find the next year (and many more to come) to be joyful and fulfilling.

I just wanted to point out that getting several weeks past delivery doesn’t mean you won’t develop it later on. So many new moms are given little to no information on PPD. Information that in the cases where it does become an issue, could really help them in the diagnoses and treatment.

- JuliaS on September 6th, 2008