Many of us remember when Britney Spears walked into a hair salon in 2007, picked up some clippers, and shaved her head. She had recently given birth to her second son with now-ex-husband Kevin Federline, and the press completely eviscerated her for it. Now looking back, Spears recalls in her memoir The Woman In Me that she struggled with “just about every symptom of perinatal depression” and was also “wracked with grief” during that time in her life.
In her memoir, Spears opens up about her early years as a mother and explains that the constant paparazzi coverage of her life exacerbated her struggle with perinatal depression at the time. Spears gave birth to her first child, son Sean Preston in 2005, and her second son, Jayden James in 2006.
“Unfortunately, there wasn’t the same conversation about mental health back then that there is now,” the singer writes, according to an excerpt published by CBS News ahead of the book’s release on Tuesday. “I hope any new mothers reading this who are having a hard time will get help early.”
“Because I now know that I was displaying just about every symptom of perinatal depression: sadness, anxiety, fatigue,” she shares in her memoir.
Perinatal depression can occur during or after pregnancy, and can leave new moms feeling anxious, empty, exhausted, and in some extreme cases, with suicidal ideation. Seeking medical attention is key, and Spears shares that she was not given access to that attention.
The “Toxic” singer looked back at her infamous head shaving experience in another excerpt from the book, admitting that she was in “the throes of severe postpartum depression, abandonment by my husband, the torture of being separated from my two babies, the death of my adored aunt Sandra, and the constant drumbeat of pressure from paparazzi,” per The New York Times.
Sadly, rather than seeing that moment as a cry for help, it was used as the catalyst to lock the singer into a conservatorship that stripped away her rights and autonomy for 13 years. A conservatorship overseen by her own father, Jamie Spears, that she felt she could not escape for fear of losing access to her two sons. “Because I played by the rules,” Spears writes in her memoir, “I was reunited with my boys.”
Both of her sons are currently living in Hawaii with their father Kevin Federline, a situation Spears approved to help them get away from the media attention in Los Angeles.
If you or someone you know is experiencing depression or anxiety during pregnancy or in the postpartum period, contact the Postpartum Health Alliance warmline at 1-888-724-7240 or Postpartum Support International at 1-800-944-4773. If you are thinking of harming yourself or your baby, get help right away by calling or texting 988 to contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or dialing 911. For more resources, you can visit Postpartum Support International.
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