Reports last week claimed Spears had been reading Shields' 2005 book, Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression, during her current stay in at the Promise rehab center in Malibu, California.

Shields wrote the book after successfully conquering postpartum depression with the aid of counseling and the antidepressant Paxil following the birth of her first child, Rowan, in 2003.

Shields tells TV show Access Hollywood, "I hope she's fine. I believe she's going to be fine, and she just needs the support and her kids. She's their only mom, and she'll earn that back in her own mind.

"(If she is suffering from depression) then it really needs to be reckoned with, and it's very common, and she'll get through it.

"If she is reading my book, I hope it's helping her. If it's not, and she wants to talk to someone, I'm available. She is followed every moment of her life, and she's documented every minute of her life."