Actress and artist Naimal Khawar recently shared her journey of navigating postpartum blues and embracing motherhood. In an appearance on Zara Noor Abbas’s podcast, No Momsense, Naimal laid bare the challenges she faced after becoming a mother and the support systems she leaned on.

Candidly admitting that she was not prepared for the emotional toll motherhood would take on her, Naimal recalled, “I wasn’t aware that this phase would come. No one told me. My elder sister told me she’d be there if I needed anything, but I didn’t realise then what she meant. All of a sudden, I felt really angry. There would be nights where I’d be depressed and cry my heart out for no reason. It was the stress, the baggage that comes with having a child.”

The road to recovery was neither easy nor short for Naimal. It took her three years to regain a sense of normalcy. “I couldn’t paint anymore, I would sit with a paintbrush in one hand, and stare at the canvas,” she said. Naimal explained how the societal shift in focus – from the mother during pregnancy to the baby post-birth – left her feeling forgotten and overwhelmed. What helped her most was setting boundaries and focusing on mental health. The actress also credited her husband and her sister as pillars of support during the darkest times.