Alanis Morissette has always been a big proponent of breastfeeding her three children. While she’s shared plenty of pics of her doing it on her Instagram page, the 45-year-old singer is feeding her eight-month-old son Winter on the cover of the new issue of Health magazine, which goes on sale April 10. She’s also the mom to daughter Onyx Solace, 3, and son Ever Imre, 9, with husband Mario “Souleye” Treadway and says she made the bold public move as a teaching moment, and to show how selfless moms are.
“Because I love women. I love moms so much. If I talk about it too much, I’ll start crying. I just think moms are so selfless day in and day out—women are just killing it all the time. And they are so often quietly suffering, or not-so-quietly suffering, and still going—functioning sufferers. And if there can be even one moment of respite that my humor around it or my validation of it can help—that’s why I did it. Plus, I love education and teaching,” she says of her breastfeeding cover. On her Instagram she’s shown pics of her breastfeeding Winter and called it “the fourth trimester.”
The “You Oughta Know” singer/songwriter also discusses postpartum depression in the cover story. “My first two children, it was mostly depression, suicidal ideation, and anxiety. But the depression was so in my face that the anxiety was just background music. With this one, it’s mostly anxiety and almost no depression. I’ve come to understand that this is purely animal. On that animal level, you’re just supposed to be up all night feeding your baby and sleeping all day when they’re napping. Who the f**k does that? I don’t know any mom that is like, ‘I totally sleep when they sleep,’” she confesses.
When it comes to mental health, Alanis wants her kids to know even at their young ages that therapy is a very positive thing. “Oh, we talk about therapy all the time. ‘Where’s Dad going?’ ‘Oh, he’s going to therapy.’ ‘What’s therapy?’ ‘Oh, therapy is where someone really helps you understand your heart, and your soul, and your mind, and your story, and your thoughts. And then with feelings, it’s a big deal for me to let them feel all the way through. I want to give them the feeling that they’re not alone, that I’m right here and they can feel it all the way through,” she reveals.