Shields' says her pregnancy ‘a surprise’
Brooke Shields' pregnancy proved to be a huge surprise for the actress—because she was preparing to embark on fertility treatment when she learned she was expecting. Shields and her husband Chris Henchy were expecting to repeat in vitro fertilization (IVF), which they used to conceive their two-year-old daughter Rowan. She says, "This was a surprise of a child. My husband was the most surprised. We don't know what month it is (due), 'cause I still have to go through all the sonograms... It's hard to chart it.”
Meanwhile, Shields is preparing to face another battle with postpartum depression after learning she's due to give birth to her second child next year. The actress, who battled the blues after giving birth to her daughter Rowan in 2003, insists she's ready to take on the depression should it strike twice.
Shields Not Afraid Of Second Bout With Postpartum Depression
10:46 am EST November 2, 2005
NEW YORK -- Actress Brooke Shields isn't worried about suffering from postpartum depression when she has her second baby.
Shields and husband Christopher Thomas Henchy's second baby is due in the spring.
She told NBC's "Today" show that she knows the symptoms now so she'll be ready for it if it comes.
Shields said she "won't fight it" and "won't feel ashamed."
Shields and Henchy have a daughter, Rowan Francis, born in 2003.
After Rowan was born, Shields said she suffered from postpartum depression that was so bad there were times she thought about swallowing a bottle of pills or jumping out of a window.
If she does feel depressed, Shields won't take the same prescription drug she did the last time because she didn't like the side effects.
But she still defends anti-depression drugs, saying they gave her a feeling of "contentment" and let her see her daughter "for what she was."
Shields' disclosure of her postpartum depression in her book, "Down Came the Rain" prompted criticism from actor Tom Cruise and a fiery debate about the use of antidepressants with "Today" show co-host Matt Lauer last summer.
Cruise's criticism prompted Shields to respond in a New York Times Op-Ed piece, saying the actor's comments were "a disservice to mothers everywhere."
Shields' first child was a test-tube baby, but she said she was able to conceive naturally this time.
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Brooke Shields Strikes Back
By Joe Gandelman
May 8, 2006
Over the past few months, when Tom Cruise wasn't busy jumping on sofas on Oprah, getting squirted in the face, or lecturing Matt Lauer about the evils of psychiatry (which Cruise has studied, he reminds us) he has attracted much attention for blasting Brooke Shields.
In the course of less than a year, Cruise has gone from being a low-profile, carefully handled multi-millionaire charismatic star to being a perpetual human embodiement of the Howard Dean scream.
Still, many people could live with that, if it was not for one tiny fact: he seems to be constantly lecturing and scolding us.
And so far few have scolded back — until now.
The person: actress Brooke Shields, writing in the New York Times, in a withering op-ed piece. Shields, in case you've been on Mars, was blasted by Cruise for her views espoused in her book "Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression." Here's the in-your-face beginning of her piece:
I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but after Tom Cruise's interview with Matt Lauer on the NBC show "Today" last week, I feel compelled to speak not just for myself but also for the hundreds of thousands of women who have suffered from postpartum depression. While Mr. Cruise says that Mr. Lauer and I do not "understand the history of psychiatry," I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Mr. Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression.
She then details her case and how women came foward to thank her for going public about her experience. And she lowers the boom:
And comments like those made by Tom Cruise are a disservice to mothers everywhere. To suggest that I was wrong to take drugs to deal with my depression, and that instead I should have taken vitamins and exercised shows an utter lack of understanding about postpartum depression and childbirth in general.... If any good can come of Mr. Cruise's ridiculous rant, let's hope that it gives much-needed attention to a serious disease....
In a strange way, it was comforting to me when my obstetrician told me that my feelings of extreme despair and my suicidal thoughts were directly tied to a biochemical shift in my body. Once we admit that postpartum is a serious medical condition, then the treatment becomes more available and socially acceptable. With a doctor's care, I have since tapered off the medication, but without it, I wouldn't have become the loving parent I am today.
So, there you have it. It's not the history of psychiatry, but it is my history, personal and real.
