First Daughter Ivanka Trump has spoken out for the first time about her experiences with post-natal depression.
Ivanka, who also serves as a special presidential advisor to her father, told Dr. Mehmet Oz that she was affected by post-natal depression after the births of each of her three children: Arabella, six, Joseph, three, and Theodore, one.
‘With each of my three children, I had some level of postpartum depression,’ she told Dr Oz in the interview, which aired yesterday. ‘It was a very challenging, emotional time for me because I felt like I was not living up to my potential as a parent, or as an entrepreneur and executive.’
‘I had had such easy pregnancies that in some way, the juxtaposition hit me even harder,’ she added.
Post-partum depression is common among mothers and is thought to affect around one in ten women in the year after they give birth, though it is not often widely discussed. Adele and Chrissy Teigen are among the high-profile women who have spoken out about their own experiences with the condition, and were subsequently praised for helping to create a more open conversation around something which can feel stigmatised.
When asked by Dr. Oz about why she has now decided to discuss her experiences, she revealed that hadn’t actually planned to do so beforehand. ‘Well, I didn’t know that I was [ready]! But you asked me a question and it’s incredibly important,’ she answered.
‘Look, I consider myself a very hard-charging person. I am ambitious. I’m passionate. I’m driven, but this is something that affects parents all over the country,’ she said.
Elsewhere in the interview, she revealed that meditation helps her to deal with the pressures of the White House, now that her decisions ‘weigh much heavier’ as they are ‘impacting people’s lives.’
‘One thing that I continue to do is meditate. It’s been enormously helpful to me,’ she said.
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