Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson, who’ve been married for 8 years, opened up about their intimacy blip at the 2019 Black Love Summit, held in Atlanta last month. Their honesty in sharing how a new baby, postpartum depression, and body image insecurity affected their bedroom life was so relatable. The BlackLove.com team knew their story could help so many people going through similar rough patches, so we caught up with the couple for an in-depth interview on how they navigated the issue and ultimately got back on track, together.
Related: ‘Black Love’ Series Wives Talk Overwhelm, Sex, and the Perfection Myth
So, what changed? How did they go from so much spice and passion to Mike’s “happy meter” plunging to a 4 out of 10? According to Egypt, she was depressed and didn’t know it.
“We were together for 6 years before we actually got married. Our first child together came a year afterwards, so we had 7 years of just us. Just kind of dating, frolicking, and being flirtatious and experimental,” she shares, “and then, when the baby came, my body changed a lot. My emotions changed, hormones, and physically I didn’t even recognize myself in the mirror.”
“I was in a very uncomfortable space with myself,” she admits. “I didn’t want my husband to see me naked, let alone be intimate with one another anymore. I was depressed. And, when you are in a depressed state, it’s very difficult — sometimes you don’t even realize you’re depressed.”
She would later find out from her doctor that it can take years for a woman’s body to regulate itself after childbirth. However, at the time, she didn’t know she was experiencing postpartum depression, let alone how to communicate it to her husband.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION