Jade Roper Tolbert got real about the postpartum PTSD she experienced after her traumatic birth.
ICYMI, the Bachelor in Paradise alum and Tanner Tolbert welcomed their second kid, a baby boy named Brooks, in 2019. However, things didn’t go as planned because Jade went into labor a month before her due date and delivered their son in a bedroom closet. Whoa. Childbirth is already a stressful experience, so you can imagine the momma must have been feeling a whole other level of scared during the unexpected home delivery!
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And the 34-year-old has now confessed she had been in a dark place for a couple of months after the ordeal in a new interview with Today. Tolbert explained how she faced a double whammy of post-traumatic stress disorder and postpartum depression:
“From the second I went into labor until pretty much until I got pregnant with my (second) son Reed, I was dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. When I was giving birth, I had such a precipitous labor I thought something wrong was happening. I thought that he was going to die. I thought I was going to die. And so after that experience, I would have flashbacks. That we were…not safe.”
Jade also confessed to having dizzy spells “out of nowhere” and some intense “intrusive thoughts,” before adding:
“I kept telling myself, ‘I’m just going to get through it. Just one more week and I’ll be better.’ I was also afraid of going (to a doctor) and that somebody was going to just dismiss it. I was really afraid no one was going to validate my feelings. And that maybe I was just making a big deal out of something, that maybe I was just being weak.”
Just imagine all of this pain while having to take care of a newborn and a toddler! Unfortunately, though, the reality star admitted she did not feel any sort of a connection to her little one at the time:
“I felt like he didn’t want me, which was the hardest part. I felt like I would look at him and I felt so disconnected and he didn’t know I was his mom or he didn’t want me as his mom.”
And it wasn’t until Tolbert realized she was “going down a really dark path” and had a “breakdown” with her husband that she decided to get help. The Mommies Tell All podcast host eventually sought treatment through hypnotherapy and learned she was pregnant with her third child, which subsequently helped change her mood. More importantly, though, the TV personality gave herself some grace and took some much-needed breaks:
“That was really hard for me. I felt like I had to be supermom. It was like, I’m OK, I don’t need to shower and get dressed today. I don’t need to take time for myself for that. I would go three days sometimes without brushing my teeth, which is disgusting, but I felt like, I can’t even do that for myself. I have to feed the baby. I have to do this. I have to do that. So telling my husband, ‘I need you to take Reed for 20 minutes. I need to go shower. I need to just go in there and breathe, and check in with myself.’”
Now, the Colorado native hopes her story will inspire other mothers to reach out and take better care of themselves no matter where they’re at in their pregnancy journeys:
“People talk so much about pregnancy and taking care of your health when you’re pregnant, and then you have a baby and nobody checks in on the mom. There are all these things going on — we’re navigating how to take care of a newborn and meeting their needs, but there’s also this transformation. We’re this new person, we have a whole new identity. That’s a big deal.”
Wow, that’s some important advice for all moms out there. What are your reactions to Jade’s story about her postpartum PTSD? Let us know in the comments (below).
[Image via Jade Roper Tolbert/Instagram]
The post <i>Bachelor</i> Nation’s Jade Roper Tolbert Says She Struggled With Postpartum PTSD After Giving Birth In A Closet appeared first on Perez Hilton.
