Mandira Bedi says it wasn’t ‘love at first sight’ with newborn son, opens up about not feeling ‘connected’ to him: ‘I would just be crying’
Mandira Bedi says it wasn’t ‘love at first sight’ with newborn son, opens up about not feeling ‘connected’ to him: ‘I would just be crying’
Actor Mandira Bedi recently opened up about becoming a mother for the first time, and her struggles with postpartum depression. Mandira said that people often "romanticise pregnancy and child birth," but not enough people speak about the struggles associated with it. She mentioned that when she first saw her son, she wasn't instantly connected to him, and it took her some time to develop a bond with him.
"When I first saw him, I was like, 'What is this pasty little frog? I have to commit myself and lose my independence because of him?' It was not love at first sight, and I had a lot of postpartum depression as well during that time, so it took me some time to feel love for him," she told Humans of Bombay. Mandira said that nobody had prepared her for postpartum depression, which came as a shock to her system. "Nobody had told me about postpartum depression. I had the baby, and at that point, I was not feeling very connected to him. The moment I would come back home, I would just be crying, and my doctors told me that the hormones are all over the place and it happens," she shared, adding that her husband was extremely supportive at the time.
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Mandira said that she had put on 22 kgs during her pregnancy, and did not feel like herself in her body after childbirth. "The fact that I was so horribly overweight and I couldn't exercise, and now my independence is gone because I have this little thing that I have to look after..." she said, and added, "Somewhere, my depression was also connected to the fact that I was not feeling good about myself, my body."
Forty days after giving birth, Mandira started exercising, which helped her recover emotionally. "I wanted to be a mother. Once I got used to it and once I felt a connection with Veer, it all changed," she shared, and added, "Once I became a mom, I thought this is the best thing I have ever done."
After the birth of her son Veer in 2011, Mandira and her husband Raj Kaushal adopted their daughter Tara in 2020. Raj passed away in 2021.
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