Jillian Harris Shares Honest Postpartum Photo from After Son's Birth: 'Never Felt So Content'
Jillian Harris is sharing one of her most intimate memories as a mom as part of a new collaboration aiming to bring awareness to the struggles — and precious moments — that come with life after giving birth.
The Bachelorette alum, 39, lent a photo taken just after the birth of her first child to the Life After Birth Project gallery, now open at 27 Greene St. in New York City.
In the snap, a topless Harris stands with her back to the camera beside her fiancé Justin Pasutto, who is holding their then-newborn son Leo George, who’s now 3. Harris, who appears to be wearing postpartum mesh underwear, gazes lovingly at her family in the photo, which was taken in 2016.
“I look back at this picture and remember it being one of the best moments of my life,” she recalled in an accompanying caption. “I’ve never felt so content with my body, my relationship with Justin, and my life.”
“I think about how full my heart was that day. How hard I worked growing the baby, carrying the baby, and then delivering our sweet Leo,” she added. “Luckily with that pregnancy and delivery everything was perfect.”
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The same couldn’t quite be said for the birth of her daughter Annie in October 2018. In her message, Harris explained that delivery was significantly more difficult the second time around.
“Fast forward a few years and my pregnancy with Annie couldn’t have been more different,” she said. “I had debilitating exhaustion, feelings of depression and a lack of interest in almost everything. I just wanted the pregnancy to be over.”
The Love It or List It, Too host shared that she did not experience postpartum depression or anxiety with either of her children, but she knows that parenthood is a series of ups and downs.
“Motherhood can be a roller coaster of emotions,” she wrote. “Every morning you wake up with a bursting feeling of love and appreciation and by 10 o’clock you’re on a caffeine overdrive with nothing in your stomach and ready to run for the hills!”
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Harris previously admitted to having feelings of depression during the first trimester of her pregnancy with Annie in April 2018, telling the Today show she felt exhausted, sick and unhappy in the early months.
“My pregnancy with Leo was a breeze. Women would say, ‘How do you feel?’ And I would say, ‘I feel wonderful!’ And they would say, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re so lucky.’ And I would think, ‘What’s the alternative?’ And now I know,” she said. “I was just so physically ill and my body felt like it was shutting down. I wasn’t able to do anything I usually do.”
Harris sharing her story is part of the Life After Birth project, a collaborative effort between Knix (a direct-to-consumer intimates brand, which just launched a maternity line), the Empowered Birth Project and Carriage House Birth, a doula and childbirth education agency based in Brooklyn, New York, co-founded by Domino Kirke.
The three companies sought out submissions from women that depicted life postpartum, and selected snapshots from more than 250 women, including celebrities like Christy Turlington Burns and Amy Schumer.
