In the past 24 hours, the blogosphere has been flooded with reports that actress Gywneth Paltrow suffered postnatal depression. In an interview in the May issue of Vogue, Paltrow was uncharacteristically revealing about several aspects of her life, including her social life and body image. But the “revelation” about feeling depressed after the birth of her second child is the one that seems to have sparked the interest of the masses. This hubbub makes me glad that Paltrow was so open about her struggles as a new parent, since the emotions she describes—“I felt really disconnected. I felt really down; I felt pessimistic”—are hardly rare among new mothers. Between 50 and 70 percent of women suffer from “baby blues,” fits of sadness or irritability during their child’s infancy, and up to 25 percent of women suffer from postnatal depression, a more severe, longer lasting sense of gloom. To a lesser degree, postnatal depression also affects new fathers.

What is most interesting about Paltrow’s admission is that she is not affected by most of the risk factors associated with postnatal depression—poverty, young motherhood, an unhappy marriage. (Paltrow’s mother and friends have stated that rumors of rockiness between Paltrow and husband Chris Martin, Coldplay’s frontman, are completely false.) Rather, she believes she got depressed because she was simply working too hard at being a mom and not taking enough time for herself, giving up lead roles in movies and indulgences like acupuncture. She feels she got over the depression in part by taking on a starring role in Iron Man—and then, once the filming was done, spending the summer at home with her family.

Granted, this is not exactly a standard depression buster, but striking the right balance between work and social time with hands-on parenting time is an inescapable issue for every parent. For those of you who can’t afford a nanny and personal trainer (both of which also proved helpful in getting Paltrow back on track emotionally), how do you manage to be a parent and a person? Any dads out there who have suffered from postnatal depression?

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