Celebrity Mom: Drew Barrymore Experienced Postpartum Depression After Daughter Frankie’s Birth: ‘I Really Got Under the Cloud’

Being a mom is everything to Drew Barrymore.

Her life with her two young daughters, Olive, 3, and Frankie, 18 months, and husband, art consultant Will Kopelman, 38, is “is an abundance,” she tells
PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “It’s perfect and totally imperfect.

Yet after Barrymore gave birth to Frankie, she sensed something might be a little off. “I didn’t have postpartum the first time so I didn’t understand it because I was like, ‘I feel great!’ The second time, I was like, ‘Oh, whoa, I see what people talk about now. I understand,’ ” she says. “It’s a different type of overwhelming with the second. I really got under the cloud.”

Between work — her new book, Wildflower, hits shelves Oct. 27 and her next film, Miss You Already, hits theaters next month — and motherhood, Barrymore, 40, felt pulled in every direction.“I just got right on the idea of, where do I need to be the most? Fifty-fifty would be ideal but life doesn’t work like that. Life is messy,” the actress says. “It was just really challenging and I felt overwhelmed. I made a lot of decisions and I definitely changed my work. life to suit my parenthood.
         As the creator of Flower Beauty, Flower Eyewearand Barrymore Wines, the actress says it’s important to her for her daughters to see her working as a good thing.
“Putting a negative stigma on work is a go-to. It makes us feel like it proves to our children that we don’t want to work, we’d rather be with you,” Barrymore adds. “I want them to see that work can be a good, positive, fun, happy thing. I’ve worked since I was 11½ months old so I have to be able to work, too. But I have to put them first. I don’t know if it’s good enough for anyone but I’m doing my best.”