"I just had a crazy surgery and I'm on all these drugs and I feel miserable and to get pointed at to say it's your fault that your kid's asleep," Trainor recalled.
Meghan Trainor is opening up about a time she felt mom-shamed during her first pregnancy with her son Riley in 2021. The Grammy winner recently shared about feeling like she was to blame for her son’s time in the neonatal intensive care unit. The 29-year-old recalled how some nurses implied that the reason her newborn came out "sleepy" was because she stayed on her antidepressants.
"It was a big debate, do I stay on my antidepressants or not? It was very safe, I got it approved by all my doctors, but my first OBGYN, this guy was like, 'Oh you can throw those candies away,' " Trainor told co-hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on TODAY. "I was like devastated." Her firstborn came out asleep "and that's what they literally called it, he's 'sleepy.' And I was like, 'Wake him up, like what do you mean?' " Trainor recalled. "Some people were like, 'Oh it's because you were on your antidepressants.'" She clarified that she spoke to her doctors to make sure it was safe to do so.
"My doctors, I called them and was like, 'You said nothing would happen!' And they said there's no science that backs that up, they're just pointing fingers," she continued. "I just felt so much shame, I just had a crazy surgery and I'm on all these drugs and I feel miserable and to get pointed at to say it's your fault that your kid's asleep."
Riley was born via C-section and struggled with breathing issues. The infant had to spend several days in the neonatal intensive care unit. "My doctor who did the C-section was like, 'C-sections are gnarly like the baby had trauma coming out. It happens all the time, it's unpredictable and you did nothing wrong,'" the Mother singer added. Trainor and Spy Kids actor Daryl Sabara are expecting their second child, they announced earlier this year, per PEOPLE.
Nicole Warren, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, said, “Depression in pregnancy is a serious threat to the well-being of both the parent and the baby,” per NBC Boston. While there are few risks involved with taking antidepressants during pregnancy, including poor neonatal adaptation syndrome (PNAS) it is usually temporary. Symptoms can include jitteriness, feeding difficulties, and hypoglycemia. PNAS doesn’t require any special care or medical intervention, Warren added.
References:
https://twitter.com/HodaAndJenna/status/1650530583867523074
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Jason Merritt
