As actress Shay Mitchell prepares to welcome her rainbow baby into the world, she is opening up about how the miscarriage she suffered affected her current pregnancy and her battle with prepartum depression.
Over the last few months, Mitchell has used her YouTube channel to share the personal ups and downs of pregnancy.
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Her videos dive deep into several topics from gender reveals to epidurals, to the fear of a birthing plan potentially falling apart.
And in one of the first videos she shared with her fans, the mom talked about how her miscarriage in 2018 left her feeling scared when she got pregnant again in 2019. And that fear ultimately leading to her keeping her pregnancy a secret from the public until she was six months along.
Now she’s talking about the prepartum depression she fell into during that time in an interview with HATCHland. Mitchell said:
“The first five months of this pregnancy were super isolating, and I went through a severe depression. I previously had a miscarriage and that experience gave me anxiety about sharing the news of this pregnancy with anyone outside of our parents.”
On January 2, Mitchell took to her Instagram story to reveal her miscarriage to her fans.
She told her fans that she wanted to share the news of her miscarriage to be as authentic as possible on social media, which is often criticized for being a “highlight reel.” She wrote, at the time, on Instagram:
“Having so many people follow me on Instagram and read my posts is both incredibly humbling and hugely uplifting. The support and affection that so many of you show me lifts me up during even my darkest days, one of which happened last year after I miscarried and lost the child of my hopes and dreams.”
Mitchell later continued in her interview with HATCHland:
“With the first pregnancy, I was elated and told everyone at eight weeks. However, I wanted to be sure that this second pregnancy would be viable before shouting it from the rooftops, so I hid it for nearly six months and became very anti-social. Usually, I’m incredibly active and outgoing, but instead, I mainly stayed home to avoid stares and questions. I was extremely lonely.”
The soon-to-be mom explained that she was surprised that not very many expecting mothers have talked openly about prepartum depression. In fact, going through prepartum depression was the thing that surprised her most during her pregnancy.
Mitchell explained:
“As long as I can remember, I’ve heard about POSTpartum depression. However, to be depressed at the beginning came as a shock. The isolation and anxiety I experienced was crippling. I thought I was going out of my mind and questioned why nobody ever talked to me about this phase.”
And although she felt alone during her first six months of pregnancy, she learned after her announcement that a lot of mothers felt the same way she did. But it was after sharing her pregnancy with the world that she started truly enjoying it and began feeling more like herself again.
Mitchell went on to say that as she continues to heal from her miscarriage, she tells herself that “everything happens for a reason.” She also admitted that sharing her story of loss has also helped her heal.
“To follow a miscarriage with a healthy pregnancy generally means the first fetus was not viable. As difficult as that was to wrap my head around when I was going through it, I tried to remind myself there was a reason the pregnancy didn’t come to term.”
She continued, “There shouldn’t be any shame in miscarriage.”
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