POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION: WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF MOTHERS, TOO
Hayden Panettiere. The Lindsay Clancy Trial. And Why America Needs to Start Taking Maternal Mental Health Seriously.
By Nika Cristiani | Founder, Inventor and Creator of GYM IN A BOX®
CREATED FOR WOMEN. BY WOMEN. ❤️
I have been thinking a lot about postpartum depression lately.
How could we not?
We are watching the heartbreaking Lindsay Clancy trial unfold in front of America while postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis and the mental healthcare available to mothers are being discussed in court almost every day.
And at the same time, we are mourning the tragic death of Hayden Panettiere at only 36 years old—a woman who had publicly spoken about her own battle with postpartum depression and how misunderstood and stigmatized she felt.
These are very different stories and they should never be casually compared.
But they have one enormously important thing in common:
THEY ARE FORCING US TO TALK ABOUT WHAT CAN HAPPEN TO WOMEN AFTER CHILDBIRTH.
And it’s about time.
HAYDEN SPOKE UP. WE SHOULD HAVE LISTENED.
Hayden Panettiere did something we constantly tell women to do:
She spoke up.
She publicly acknowledged that she was suffering from postpartum depression.
And years later, Hayden revealed something I find deeply disturbing as a woman and female entrepreneur who creates products for women.
She said that after speaking publicly about her postpartum depression, Neutrogena—whose products were marketed largely to women and for whom Hayden had been a longtime ambassador—wanted to fire her.
She said her representative intervened, but she knew the relationship was effectively over.
After approximately a decade representing the company, she recalled not even receiving a simple message wishing her well.
Following Hayden’s death and the enormous public backlash that followed, Neutrogena acknowledged that Hayden had been made to feel unsupported during an extremely difficult period and announced plans to invest in expanding access to women’s health support, including postpartum depression care.
I hope something meaningful comes from that commitment.
But as a female founder, I cannot ignore the bigger lesson.
YOU CANNOT BUILD AN EMPIRE SELLING PRODUCTS TO WOMEN WHILE FAILING TO SUPPORT WOMEN WHEN THE REALITIES OF BEING A WOMAN BECOME UNCOMFORTABLE.
Women are not a marketing demographic.
We are human beings.
And companies profiting from women need to remember that.
AND NOW WE ARE WATCHING THE LINDSAY CLANCY TRIAL
The Lindsay Clancy trial is difficult, horrifying and heartbreaking.
Three innocent children lost their lives.
Nothing changes that.
Nothing makes that tragedy less devastating.
But the trial has opened an enormous national conversation about postpartum psychosis and maternal mental healthcare.
Clancy’s defense argues that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and was unable to understand the wrongfulness of her actions.
Prosecutors strongly dispute that interpretation. Their experts have testified that although she suffered from mental illness, they do not believe she was acutely psychotic at the time and argue that she understood right from wrong.
That determination belongs to the jury.
But the larger question belongs to all of us:
HOW SICK DOES A MOTHER HAVE TO BECOME BEFORE WE TAKE HER SERIOUSLY?
Postpartum psychosis is not the same condition as postpartum depression. It is much rarer and can become a psychiatric emergency.
Yet the Clancy case is forcing millions of people who may never even have heard the words “postpartum psychosis” to learn about it.
That conversation cannot end when this trial ends.
I HAVE WORKED WITH WOMEN FOR MORE THAN 25 YEARS
This subject matters enormously to me because my perspective didn’t come from sitting in a corporate boardroom analyzing a female consumer demographic.
It came from working directly with women.
For more than 25 years, Nino and I worked hands-on in the fitness, gym, personal training and professional muscle-stimulation industry.
Over those decades, we personally trained and coached thousands of women, including women trying to regain their physical strength, confidence and connection to their bodies after childbirth.
I saw postpartum women struggling with their bodies.
I saw exhaustion.
I saw anxiety.
I saw women who didn’t recognize themselves anymore.
And I worked with women who were dealing with postpartum depression while trying to simultaneously be the mother everybody expected them to be.
Our role was fitness and coaching—not psychiatric treatment.
That distinction is extremely important.
But I also witnessed something powerful:
HELPING A WOMAN FEEL PHYSICALLY STRONG AGAIN CAN MATTER.
Exercise can support mood, sleep, energy and overall mental well-being.
For some of the women we coached who were also struggling with anxiety or postpartum depression, having structured physical activity, personal attention and a way to reconnect with their bodies became one valuable part of their broader recovery and support system.
And that experience stayed with me.
THEN I SAW ANOTHER PROBLEM
There was an obvious contradiction.
We kept telling mothers:
Exercise. Take care of yourself. Get stronger. Make time for yourself.
Okay.
WHEN?
You have a newborn.
You’re breastfeeding or preparing bottles.
You’re changing diapers.
You’re barely sleeping.
You’re trying to work.
Maybe you have another child running around the house.
Maybe you don’t have childcare.
And now you’re supposed to drive to a gym and spend another hour or two working out?
For many women, that’s simply unrealistic.
So we decided:
WHAT IF THE GYM CAME TO HER?
THAT’S HOW GYM IN A BOX® BECAME PERSONAL
When we launched our first GYM IN A BOX® wearable during the pandemic in 2020, the MagicTone StimFitBelt™, postpartum women were absolutely among the women we wanted our technology to serve.
We took decades of hands-on experience with muscle stimulation and turned it into wearable technology that could be incorporated into everyday life.
Once medically cleared to resume exercise, a mother could use her StimFit technology at home.
Hands-free.
Hold your baby.
Play with your toddler.
Work from home.
Do the laundry.
Relax on the couch.
And make those 15 minutes about taking care of your body, too.
That philosophy ultimately grew into 20+ GYM IN A BOX® fitness, beauty and body-tech products.
Because I believe:
FITNESS NEEDS TO FIT INTO A WOMAN’S LIFE—NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.
CREATED FOR WOMEN. BY WOMEN.
I am a female entrepreneur who has spent decades working with women before creating products for women.
That difference matters to me.
I don’t want to tell a 35-year-old woman who just gave birth that she needs to immediately “get her body back.”
It’s still her body.
I want to give her technology and tools that can help her reconnect with it on her terms and her schedule.
Strong muscles.
Confidence.
Movement.
Energy.
And those precious few minutes where somebody is finally taking care of HER.
AMERICA NEEDS BETTER MATERNAL MENTAL HEALTHCARE
And this brings me back to Hayden and Lindsay.
Fitness cannot treat postpartum depression.
GYM IN A BOX® does not treat postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis.
Postpartum depression deserves professional medical and mental-health care.
Postpartum psychosis can be a medical emergency requiring immediate professional intervention.
And that’s precisely why I believe America needs universal access to healthcare that takes women’s mental and physical symptoms seriously.
A woman should not have to wonder whether she can afford to ask for help.
She shouldn’t have to wait until she’s in crisis.
She shouldn’t have to convince everyone around her that something is wrong.
And she certainly shouldn’t be afraid that speaking honestly about postpartum depression could cost her career, her reputation or a corporate partnership.
We tell women to speak up.
Then we damn well better listen when they do.
MOMS, WE GOT YOU. ❤️
We cannot solve America’s maternal mental-health crisis with a fitness product.
And I would never pretend that we can.
But after more than 25 years working with women, I know we can make one piece of their lives easier.
We can bring fitness home.
We can design technology around women’s lives instead of asking women to rearrange their lives around fitness.
We can help women reconnect with physical strength after childbirth once their healthcare professional clears them for exercise.
And as women, entrepreneurs, husbands, partners, doctors, employers, brands and communities, we can do something even more important:
LISTEN.
Listen when a woman says she isn’t okay.
Listen when she says she doesn’t recognize herself.
Listen when she says she’s scared.
Listen before she reaches a breaking point.
Hayden spoke.
The Lindsay Clancy trial is making America talk.
Now let’s make sure we’re finally listening.
To every mother reading this:
Taking care of yourself is not selfish.
You matter, too.
MOMS, WE GOT YOU. ❤️
With love,
Nika Cristiani
Founder • Inventor • Creator
GYM IN A BOX®
CREATED FOR WOMEN. BY WOMEN.
Elite Body Activation™ | ToneUp15® StimFit Technology
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