Millennial women are more likely than their mothers to experience antenatal depression, or depression during pregnancy.
Prepartum depression is fairly common, affecting between 10 and 15% of pregnant women.1
The signs of depression in pregnancy can range from a loss of interest in pleasant activities and feelings of worthlessness to changes in appetite and fatigue.
A few months after welcoming her firstborn, DJ Pierra was back on the grind on Ebru TV’s ‘Let’s Talk Show.’
As expected of many new moms, she had put on some weight and the trolls started targeting her with even a certain Friday pull-out rudely accusing her of ‘parading her baby fat’.
After all the unwarranted trolling Pierra had the last laugh after losing weight thanks to breastfeeding.
While Pierra may have had trouble losing the weight she gained after welcoming her beautiful daughter, the DJ confessed that due to depression she had trouble gaining weight during her pregnancy and she weighed only 49 Kgs when she was 4 months pregnant.
These comments triggered Pierra who went on to call such claims uncouth and unfair as they were putting on unnecessary pressure on new mums who should be celebrating bringing forth life and concentrating on raising their children and not losing weight to be pleasing to the public.
“It was terrible, I could not even gain weight and at 4 months pregnant, I was 49 Kgs .I couldn’t gain weight, I was not eating. The good thing is that my family is very close and when they realized I was going through depression, my sister moved in with me. I had a support system. Polepole , I started getting over it and after giving birth, 3 months later I started gaining weight. I ate njahĩs, ugali…as I was breastfeeding. Depression iliniingia mbaya sana, but I got out stronger,” she confessed on Radio Jambo.
In the same interview, Pierra disclosed that having her baby is the best thing that has ever happened to her but she was not ready for pregnancy when it happened.
“Pregnancy attacked me. I wasn’t prepared. Initially I knew I wanted to have a child, it’s every woman’s dream but I was not prepared. (I was like)Si sahii, sikusema saa hii so nikashtuka. I got pregnant kama sijaolewa and I come from a very Christian family so nikajua hapa nimeisha. I went through depression, sijui nitafanya nini, tukaachana na baby daddy, ilikuwa drama mingi,” Miss Pierra said.