The media shy away from calling an unborn human being a “baby” or “person.” But according to one star, before she gave birth, she “grew a human.”
New Girl actress Zooey Deschanel graced the cover of Redbook’s May 2016 issue. Inside, the 36-year-old talked motherhood with freelance writer Jessica Pressler after giving birth to her little girl, Elsie Otter, last year.
From the beginning, Deschanel called having a child a “huge accomplishment” that made her “feel like an adult.”
After taking a six-week hiatus from filming, Deschanel admitted that maternity leave was a “hard decision” – but also the right one.
“Ultimately, I knew I could miss a few episodes and trust that it would be fine, and I’d never regret spending more time with my child, you know?” she said.
“When they’re so little, they need you so much, and I wanted to be with her constantly,” she added. “[F]or me, it was a wonderful time to get to spend with my child that was about her and me and our family.”
While pregnant, Deschanel made fitness a priority for her sake as well as her baby’s.
“I was eating healthy and I was staying active,” she stressed, “and that’s all really good for the baby.”
When Pressler asked about the pressure to lose the “baby weight” after giving birth, Deschanel responded that she recovered at her own speed.
“[T]o expect someone to look like her pre-baby self immediately is odd,” she urged. “Because you just grew a human and then birthed that human.”
Deschanel described 8-month-old Elsie, her first child with husband Jacob Pechenik, as “very joyful.”
“She started smiling at six weeks, and she’s laughing now. There’s nothing better than walking into a room and she’s so thrilled to see me,” she said. “She’s quite simply the best.”
