Cardi B has had a busy year. She’s been married, had a baby, had to make some hard decisions about when to go back to work, and then her marriage ended very publicly. It would be a lot for any mother, and Cardi admits it was hard.

In a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar (for the magazine’s March cover issue), Cardi opened up about how postpartum depression surprised her.

“I thought I was going to avoid it,” the 26-year-old first-time mama explained. “When I gave birth, the doctor told me about postpartum, and I was like: ‘Well, I’m doing good right now, I don’t think that’s going to happen. But out of nowhere, the world was heavy on my shoulders.”

It makes sense. Cardi had to pull out of the Bruno Mars tour very publicly, and while it was obviously the best decision for her and her family, it couldn’t have been easy to make that choice. But Cardi says she’s still not feeling like her old self exactly. Pregnancy changes our brains, and Cardi is thinking differently these days. She’s also feeling differently, physically.

“For some reason, I still don’t feel like my body’s the same,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “I feel like I don’t have my balance right yet. When it comes to heels, I’m not as good at walking anymore. I feel like I’m holding a weight on me. I don’t know why because I’m skinnier than I’ve ever been. But there’s an energy I haven’t gotten back yet that I had before I was pregnant. It’s just the weirdest thing.”

Research suggests it takes new moms six months to adjust to motherhood and find their new equilibrium, so Cardi may find she gets a confidence boost soon, as baby Kulture is now 6 months old, and about 25% of first-time mothers “experienced a period with low maternal confidence, low maternal mood and high parental stress,” according to one study published in the journal Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare.

Other surveys estimate a full third of mothers experience mental health issues but according to a recent study published in the Maternal and Child Health Journal, one in five new moms experiencing postpartum mood disorders don’t disclose their symptoms to healthcare providers.

That’s why it’s cool that Cardi disclosed her depression to Harper’s Bazaar. This mama is a cultural force, and by getting people talking about postpartum depression, she’s making it easier for other people to talk about it when it happens to them.

Mama, you shouldn’t have to feel like the world is heavy on your shoulders. If you do, it’s time to talk about it so you can get some help carrying that weight.

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