Alyssa Milano suffered from anxiety attacks and postpartum depression starting from the night she got her baby boy home from the hospital. In a first-person essay for Time, the actress said that she felt guilty after she gave birth to her son Milo via an emergency cesarean in the year 2011 after her initial plan of having the baby naturally. Milano had a problem going into labor because she had complications in her pregnancy.
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She writes in the essay that the night she returned to her house from the hospital; she suffered from her first anxiety attack. “I felt like I had already disappointed my child. I felt like I failed as a mother since I was not able to give birth vaginally or nourish him with the breast milk that had not come in yet. My heart raced. My stomach seized up. I felt like I was dying,” she wrote.
About two years ago, Milano, 45, revealed that she had suffered a miscarriage before she learned that she was pregnant again with Milo. She said that she suffered from anxiety issues after giving birth to Milo.
Later, she suffered from another anxiety attack a few months after the first attack when Milo fell sick a week before she was due to start filming a television show. She said that Milo had a high fever and a febrile seizure. The actress further said that her attempt to balance her work life and motherhood took a toll on her mental health as she says that it was then her anxiety issues and guilt exacerbated when she started to work in the television series.
She recalled. “Every day, I would drive to work and think about all the ways that Milo could die in the hands of his caretakers.”
Ultimately, Milano decided to check in at a psychiatric hospital in 2011 and spent three days there before she finally got the medical attention she required from a therapist and psychiatrist. She credited them for helping her recover.
Notably, Milano and her husband welcomed a new member to the family, a daughter named Elizabella in the year 2014.
