Hayden Panettiere Opens Up About Post-Partum Depression
— -- "Nashville" actress Hayden Panettiere discovered that she had more in common with her character, Juliette Barnes, after giving birth to daughter Kaya Klitschko last December.
Like her character on the ABC drama, Panettiere suffered from postpartum depression.
"It's something I can very much relate to," Panettiere revealed during an appearance on "Live! With Kelly and Michael" Monday. "It's something a lot of women experience. When [you are told] about postpartum depression you think it's 'I feel negative feelings towards my child; I want to injure or hurt my child.' I've never, ever had those feelings. Some women do. But you don't realize how broad of a spectrum you can really experience that on. It's something that needs to be talked about. Women need to know that they're not alone, and that it does heal."
Panettiere said the shame and misunderstanding surrounding the condition keeps many women silent.
"There's a lot of people out there that think that it's not real, that it's not true, that it's something that's made up in their minds, that 'Oh, it's hormones.' They brush it off," the 26 year-old actress said. "It's something that's completely uncontrollable. It's really painful and it's really scary and women need a lot of support."
She added, "Women are amazing. We do something that no man can do on this planet. I mean, we grow a human being in our body!"
It's also something that Panettiere's fiancé, heavyweight champion, Wladimir Klitschko, wishes he could do.
"If Wlad figured out a way to get pregnant and he could have the baby, we would be going right now, no problem," revealed Panettiere, adding that she'd like to have four children.
"When I was pregnant, he did this thing where he would suck in his stomach and then I would put my stomach to his so that he could feel when she was moving -- almost like she was in his stomach," Panettiere said. "He wanted to feel what it was like to have a baby as close to him as it was to me."
