Actress Wolke Hegenbarth (42) has been the mother of a son since 2019. It is her first child - and in all likelihood her only one, as she made quite clear in a detailed interview with "Spiegel". In the meantime she is doing "well" again, but she has suffered from the "trauma of sleep deprivation" for a long time. "I can't imagine a second child for that reason," she speaks openly about her feelings and apparently from the soul of many other mothers.

She received positive feedback from many women because she dared to address this supposedly taboo subject. "Many wrote to me that they cried because they finally felt understood. That's why I want to say to all women who are in the situation right now: It's getting better. I couldn't imagine it, but it's true."

Before that, however, she had to realize for herself that many other mothers are also going through the same physical and psychological hardships: "I felt so incredibly alone [...]. I had the feeling that I was the only one who felt like this. It doesn't matter , everywhere you look the story always ends with the woman having her baby and being happy."

For the first year, her son Avi "didn't sleep more than two hours at a time." As soon as she tried to put her child down, it immediately woke up screaming. "He lived on me. He the koala, me the eucalyptus - that describes my first year with him." During this time, she literally ceased to exist as an individual. Although her partner Olli "did everything that was possible" to help her, he just continued to work full-time.

Hegenbarth "fortunately [...] didn't suffer any postnatal depression" but felt "constantly overwhelmed". It still "triggers" her when her now three-year-old son wakes her up several times in the night: "Apparently this massive turning point in my life has only healed superficially." Her conclusion about her three years as a mother is correspondingly honest: "If I had known beforehand what the first year would be like, I would not have done it. Nevertheless, I can say afterwards: I am very happy to have become a mother."

As early as September, Hegenbarth explained in an interview with "Bild" that she had no problem illuminating "the downsides" of everyday life with a baby. "For me, both are part of it. I think that a low point in a life can be told. And that was by far the hardest year of my life."