Salma Hayek to new moms: Give yourselves a break | Features | MYQ2 | KMYQ TV

From the Chicago Tribune

PARENT TO PARENT

Salma Hayek to new moms: Give yourselves a break

By Kelly Haramis, Tribune reporter

April 13, 2008

Actress Salma Hayek is pulling an all-nighter––many all-nighters, actually––as the new mom watches 6-month-old daughter Valentina sleeping.

"Every night, I don't sleep, I watch her," Hayek said, who added that she's still breast-feeding.

But little Valentina isn't quiet the whole night.

"At some point during the night, she starts cracking up, she just laughs––and it makes me so happy," Hayek said. "Some babies snore, mine laughs."

Q sat down with the "Frida" actress and "Ugly Betty" executive producer when she traveled to Chicago last week for the North American launch of One Pack=One Vaccine. A joint partnership between UNICEF and Pampers, the initiative provides mothers and newborns in developing countries with tetanus vaccines. For each Pampers product purchased with a blue sticker and campaign name, Pampers will donate one tetanus vaccine. UNICEF aims to eliminate tetanus in 12 African countries in the next two years, and Pampers hopes to provide 50 million vaccines through its North American effort.

"It's very possible that the death toll will become zero," Hayek said.

Caryl Stern, president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, said: "There's lots of room for hope but no hope for complacency."

The program will run through August, with products available at most mass, discount and grocery stores.

"As a new mom, the most important, the No. 1 priority in life becomes to have a healthy child and [at the same time] to think of these babies who are born with this curse that they don't have the opportunity for life," Hayek said. "It's so easy to immunize against. ... It's actually 5 cents [per vaccine]. It's so simple, so easy and so cheap."

Q asked Hayek how, aside from providing the opportunity to work with UNICEF and Pampers, motherhood has changed her. She slowly responded, "I don't think it's changed me that much…" before coming to a realization: "It brought out in me some things that were dormant. It changes your priorities and your focus, to things that are sort of already there. It changes life completely."

Although she has been a mom for only 6 months, Hayek was asked if she had any advice for new mothers.

"I'm trying to do my best. I take it one day at a time. I wouldn't dare to try to tell a mom what to do because God knows when you have a baby, everyone tries to tell you what to do and they all contradict one another.

"So my advice is more personal: Give yourself a break. I know for myself, I want to be supermom and work really hard, be very good at work, lose all the weight, and all the while you're not sleeping, and still putting a lot of effort into the relationship and being romantic," said Hayek, who is engaged to French tycoon Francois-Henri Pinault. "If I don't get it all right, sometimes I get frustrated."

So Hayek offers this, saying she reminds herself of it every day:

"You just did the most amazing thing a human being can do, which is give the opportunity for a new life. We should feel like queens and give ourselves a little bit more of a break."

So, moms, when you're out buying those Pampers, be sure to throw a tiara in the cart.

kharamis@tribune.com