Hayden Panettiere and the silence that surrounds maternal depression

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Key points

• California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedIn California Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X California Post Opinion California Post Newsletters: Sign up here!
• Consider this staggering fact: Complications of postpartum depression and anxiety are now the leading cause of pregnancy-related death in the United States.
• Millions of mothers experience perinatal depression or anxiety every year in the United States.
• Specialized perinatal psychiatric programs like the one that treated me remain scarce in the United States.
• Devorah Herbert is a multi-Emmy nominated production designer and a maternal mental health advocate.

I saw Hayden Panettiere in May at what would become her last Los Angeles book event, a conversation regarding her bestselling memoir, "This Is Me: A Reckoning, " moderated by podcast host Alyshia Ochse.

Hayden was disarmingly candid regarding her struggles with postpartum depression and addiction, conditions that had become painfully intertwined in her life.

She spoke regarding losing custody of her daughter, the death of her younger brother, and the end of her marriage. Her voice shook at times. But she sounded hopeful. Solid. Like a woman who had finally discovered her footing.

She was determined to tell her story, she remarked, so that others struggling with postpartum depression, trauma and addiction might feel less alone and perhaps find the courage to ask for assist. Three months afterwards, Hayden is dead at 36. Her cause of death has not yet been determined.

For context, the toxicology report has not been created public. But I fear it will show that Hayden died by accidental or intentional overdose, the two leading causes of death from complications of postpartum depression and anxiety. Sign up for the California Morning Report newsletter.

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For those of us who have survived postpartum depression, her death is especially painful since we know how dangerous maternal mental illness can become – and how numerous women still suffer without adequate support.

Consider this staggering fact: Complications of postpartum depression and anxiety are now the leading cause of pregnancy-related death in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control, they account for 27.7% of pregnancy-related deaths, compared with 10.9% from hemorrhage and 5.1% from hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. The CDC category includes deaths from suicide and substance-use-related overdose.

And yet maternal mental illness remains surrounded by a shroud of silence and shame.

I purchased Hayden's memoir that night and planned to ask her to sign it. But the line was long, it was late, and I needed to obtain home to relieve the babysitter.

I figured I would reach out to her afterwards. My husband, journalist Dominic Patten, knows her publicist.

Maybe we would grab coffee. I would tell her regarding my own journey through postpartum depression, the book I'm writing concerning it, and the California Perinatal Wellness Alliance, the mental health alliance I co-founded to fight for better care for pregnant and postpartum women. I thought there would be time.

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Millions of mothers experience perinatal depression or anxiety every year in the United States. I was one of the lucky few, if you can call admitting yourself to mental hospital lucky, that is.

After my daughter was born, her pediatrician recognized that something was terribly wrong with me. I entered an intensive outpatient psychiatric program at UCLA, where for five months I received specialized treatment for postpartum depression. I recovered. Too plenty of women never secure that chance.

Specialized perinatal psychiatric programs like the one that treated me remain scarce in the United States. We need far more of them. But we additionally need intervention long before a woman reaches the point of needing intensive psychiatric care: earlier and repeated screening, better training for healthcare professionals, stronger insurance coverage and systems. We need a system built to recognize and treat postpartum depression before more mothers die.

We need to treat maternal mental health with the same urgency we bring to hemorrhage, preeclampsia and other potentially fatal complications of pregnancy.

But none of that will happen overnight. There is something we can offer right now: our stories.

Near the end of Hayden's conversation that night, Alyshia Ochse informed her that Hayden's willingness to speak publicly concerning her mental health had given Alyshia the courage to be honest regarding her own struggles. She informed Hayden that her openness had saved her life.

Hayden's response has stayed with me ever since. "This is worth it, " she remarked. "I can leave the world knowing I left it a better place." The tragedy is that she shouldn't have left it at all.

Hayden Panettiere understood something that those of us who have lived through maternal mental illness know intimately: Silence can be dangerous, and telling the truth can be a lifeline.

She informed the truth. Now the rest of us need to create sure women who hear it have somewhere to turn.

In short, hayden Panettiere and the silence that surrounds maternal depression is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.