Penélope Cruz Gets Candid About the Pressures of Giving Birth: ‘I Pushed Myself to Be Superwoman’

Speaking out! Penélope Cruz recently opened up about giving into society’s pressures after giving birth to her son in 2011. The Volver star revealed that she “forgot” to take care of herself after feeling the stress to look perfect just hours after she had given birth.

“I realized what a lot of fairytales and movies and messages from society have put in my head because the way I left the hospital the first time and the way I left the second were two different women,” the 45-year-old recently told Gwyneth Paltrow at the first U.K. Goop summit, reports the Daily Mail. “The first [time], I pushed myself to be superwoman like, ‘I’ll do it natural birth and then 12 hours later I’m out of the hospital in high heels.'”

The Vicky Cristina Barcelona actress — who is the loving mama of 8-year-old son Leo Encinas Cruz and 5-year-old daughter Luna Encinas Cruz — didn’t realize how much she was truly suffering when it came to her trying to please society. “Now I look back and say, ‘Who asked you to do this? And who asked you to not delegate, to feel like you have to do everything yourself 24 hours a day and forget to take care [of] yourself?” Penélope asked. “That has nothing to do with feminism. I was not respecting myself by doing that.”

Penélope realized she didn’t have to succumb to the pressures after getting pregnant with her second child. “[For the second birth], I said I’m going to stay in this hospital for three days,” she told Gwyneth, 46. “I laid down in this bed with my baby and my other baby was coming over and my husband was great and really really helpful, but you need to realize you need to eat, sleep, basically take a shower.”

The brunette beauty — who shares her two little bundles of joy with husband Javier Bardem — recently got candid about her journey to motherhood. “I wanted to be a mother since I was a little girl,” the Nine star gushed to The Telegraph. “But even if you think you know what it’s going to be, it’s so amazing what happens when you see your kid for the first time: you then see the world differently for the rest of your life, because you’re always going to think about somebody else first.”

We hear you, mama!