Rachel Platten is a songwriter, a singer whose depression anthem "Fight Song" went quadruple-platinum and a dedicated philanthropist. The 37-year-old has got it going on.
And, just like the rest of us, motherhood has left her feeling like a "mess" a lot of the time.
Since giving birth to her first child with husband Kevin Lazan, daughter Violet Skye, on January 26, the past few months have been a whirlwind of emotions.
Though Platten has embraced motherhood and adores Violet, she admits that transitioning to becoming the working mother of a newborn is "all tough. It's all so hard!" she told TODAY Parents. "Even things I thought I had down, like breastfeeding — I was feeling so confident, and the past few days, she's had trouble latching out of nowhere."
She has shared pictures and thoughts on motherhood on Instagram that range from overwhelming love and feelings of empowerment to frustrations over breastfeeding or anxiety about leaving Violet for work.
Platten said that sharing her more vulnerable motherhood moments on social media in posts like that one has "buoyed" her. "I get flooded with comments from other women and men saying that it's OK, and I'm not alone, I'm not doing a bad job," she said.
"It's making me feel not isolated. I could have gone down a road of this being a much darker experience had I not learned early on to be vulnerable and vocalize what I'm going through. That's been a really big life raft for me," she said.
So she's partnering with the March of Dimes on a new campaign encouraging women to share their "unspoken stories" about the difficult moments of motherhood in an effort to create community and connection.
In a recent Instagram post, she relayed what she called her "hardest day yet in motherhood," when her power went out and she and her husband scrambled to save her frozen supply of pumped breastmilk.
"We were underslept and exhausted, and by the end of the day, our mellow, sweet Violet was screaming at the top of her lungs for two hours straight and could not be comforted," wrote Platten. "As if to say, 'OK Mom, enough, your B.S. has finally got to me.'
"I felt like I failed," she wrote. "When the going got tough, I was my worst self, not my best self. But I'm learning, and I’m doing my best, and that’s all I can do."
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Though social media notoriously nurtures those FOMO feelings that can make moms feel like they're not doing it right, Platten finds that connecting with other mothers is "a really positive part about it."
The last thing Platten ever wants to do, though, is make any other mom feel like she isn't good enough when she posts more glamorous pictures of herself in full hair and make-up or on her way to perform. Here's what she wants you to know: "I have so much help; I have so much support."
"I was lucky with a vaginal birth that was almost seamless, so my recovery was faster. If any of those things hadn't worked, I have the resources, and I have the help, and I have the doctors that I would need. I'm lucky."
Without all of that, Platten said, "I would be stumbling and a complete mess. I'm still a mess!"
For more information about #UnspokenStories and to share your story, visit the website, upload your story, and engage with others in the community.
