Gwyneth Paltrow & Bryce Dallas Howard Open Up About PPD

Two Hollywood moms are opening up about their difficult struggles with postpartum depression. In the latest edition of Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP newsletter, the Shakespeare In Love star and actress Bryce Dallas Howard share their experiences with PPD.

"When my son, Moses, came into the world in 2006, I expected to have another period of euphoria following his birth, much the way I had when my daughter was born two years earlier," writes Gwyneth, who is mom to Apple, 6, and Moses, 4. "Instead I was confronted with one of the darkest and most painfully debilitating chapters of my life. For about five months I had, what I can see in hindsight as postnatal depression, and since that time, I have wanted to know more about it. Not only from a hormonal and scientific standpoint, and why so many of us experience it, but from the perspective of other women who have gone through it."

Twilight actress Bryce Dallas Howard writes a moving essay on her own experience after the birth of her son Theo in 2007.

"It is strange for me to recall what I was like at that time," Bryce writes. "I seemed to be suffering emotional amnesia. I couldn’t genuinely cry, or laugh, or be moved by anything. For the sake of those around me, including my son, I pretended, but when I began showering again in the second week, I let loose in the privacy of the bathroom, water flowing over me as I heaved uncontrollable sobs."

Having recovered after a long and hard struggle, Bryce says, "Do I wish I had never endured post-partum depression? Absolutely. But to deny the experience is to deny who I am. I still mourn the loss of what could have been, but I also feel deep gratitude for those who stood by me, for the lesson that we must never be afraid to ask for help, and for the feeling of summer that still remains."

Kudos to both of these moms for sharing such a painful experience for the benefit of all the other moms going through something similar.