Freida Pinto opens up on her postpartum journey

Freida Pinto is opening up about her tough postpartum time following the birth of her baby boy Rumi-Ray with husband Cory Tran.

The Slumdog Millionaire star, 37, tells PEOPLE in this week's issue, out now, that while she's loving being a mom to son Rumi-Ray, 8 months, her postpartum experience was not an easy feat.

"The hormones plummeting, the mood swings, the sleep deprivation — it was all very real," she says. "And the hardest part was breastfeeding and my toes would curl when I knew my son was hungry because of the pain I would experience with his bad latch. I'm very proud I stuck with it."

Pinto, who shares her son with her husband Cory, expresses the importance of being prepared for the postpartum experience and planning for a "postpartum sanctuary."

"In my culture, it is customary for a mother to be taken care of for the first 30 or 40 days, and the mother and baby never left alone to just figure it out," she explains. "But all my American friends told me that they felt isolated. It is so important that every woman be able to prepare and plan for a postpartum sanctuary."

The actress says she felt "inspired" to become the chief impact officer of Anya, a postpartum support platform founded in 2021, as her postpartum experience was "vastly different" from what she was told by other mothers.