Entertainment
Beyonce & 6 Other Celebs Who Had Preeclampsia During Pregnancy
While it might not happen to every woman, pregnancy can have a more extreme, even dangerous side. From hyperemesis gravidarum, the extreme morning sickness that has afflicted both Amy Schumer and Kate Middleton, to the gestational diabetes that affected Mariah Carey and Salma Hayek, to the placenta previa that sent Tori Spelling to the hospital, there are medical conditions and complications that can arise when a woman is carrying a child — some more common than others. Looking back at the past few years, Some of the celebs who had Preeclampsia during pregnancy, including Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian... and many more.
According to the Johns Hopkins Medicine website, some 8 percent of pregnancies involve complicating conditions that, if left untended, may harm either mother or baby.
Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-only condition in which the expectant mother’s blood pressure skyrockets around (or after) the 20th week of pregnancy, with symptoms including headaches, abdominal pain, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting and blurred vision, according to the nonprofit Preeclampsia.org. Preeclampsia and related conditions can affect up to 8 percent of births in the U.S., according to the site.
While all this sounds super-scary, it's important to note that with proper care, most women with this diagnosis will fully recover and deliver healthy babies, Preeclampia.org noted, and Medical News Today added that as long as a mom-to-be attends her prenatal visits and follows her doctor's advice, extreme complications are rare. Thankfully, these celebs and their offspring are doing fine now, but they sure had to deal with a lot to get here.
Beyonce
Being music's reigning queen didn't make this singer immune from a scary and difficult pregnancy with twins Sir and Rumi born in June 2017, as website The Cut detailed in highlighting the singer's new Netflix documentary, Homecoming.
"My body went through more than I knew it could. I was 218 pounds the day I gave birth. I had an extremely difficult pregnancy. I had high blood pressure. I developed toxemia, preeclampsia, and in the womb, one of my babies’ heart beats paused a few times, so I needed to get an emergency C-section," The Cut quoted Beyonce as saying in the film.
And while the singer triumphantly went on to become the first African-American woman to headline Coachella the following year, as People reported, the struggle after such a tough experience to regain her old performance-ready self was a big one, as the documentary examines.
Kim Kardashian
With three beautiful, healthy children nowadays, it may seem like water under the bridge that when Kardashian had her first child, North, a case of significant preeclampsia forced her to deliver six weeks early, as website Baby Gaga noted.
Unfortunately, this condition was followed by placenta accreta, where the placenta gets stuck, leading to a painful removal by the doctor, as Kim shared with Elle last year regarding her first two deliveries with North and Saint.
"After giving birth, your placenta is supposed to come out. But mine was stuck. That’s what women usually die from in childbirth — you hemorrhage and bleed to death and they can’t stop it. To get it out — it’s so disgusting — the doctor had to stick his whole arm in me and scrape it off. It was the most painful," the star explained.
As Refinery 29 noted, the reality star turned to a surrogate for baby number three, Chicago, due to her history of pregnancy complications. All's well that ends well for Kardashian as a mom to three healthy kids (with a fourth baby, a boy, arriving soon via surrogate, according to Cosmopolitan).
Adriana Lima
The Victoria's Secret supermodel's preeclampsia during her pregnancy with daughter Valentina in 2010 was serious enough to put her on bedrest, as Parents magazine reported. Unfortunately, that was not enough to stave off Lima delivering her little one at only 34 weeks — she weighed in at just 4.4 pounds, the magazine noted.
Valentina was the "smallest [baby] in the whole hospital," Lima recalled to People that year. "As a parent you really want to give your best and you don’t want [anything] to happen with the baby, so it was stressful." I'll say. At least Parents noted Valentina is a healthy bigger girl now, and sister to Lima's younger child, Sienna, both of whom look adorable on Lima's social media.
Mariah Carey
The pop star battled both preeclampsia and gestational diabetes when twins Moroccan and Monroe were born, Parents noted. Carey opened up to interviewer Barbara Walters on 20/20 the next year, in 2011, according to The Hollywood Reporter, noting she had not understood how serious pregnancy complications can be.
"I don't think I understood the enormity or the magnitude of what it really does to your body. Its not just, 'Oh, you don't look pretty and you have a bump,'" the singer noted. "I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to walk properly again ... I made it to 35 weeks and then the doctor said it wasn't safe anymore."
Luckily, the singer and her gorgeous kids looking to be living happily ever after on Instagram.
Michelle Duggar
She's the matriarch of Counting On now, which includes the stories of her own kids' pregnancies, but Duggar mama Michelle is no stranger to her own baby drama.
As Baby Gaga related, Duggar had baby Josie in 2009, her 19th baby, born three months prematurely with serious complications as Duggar battled preeclampsia. Josie weighed only 1 lb., 6 oz. at birth, People confirmed, although the little girl was tough enough to fight her way back to health; Michelle ended up having an emergency C-section, as ABC News noted.
Today, as Entertainment Cheat Sheet detailed, Josie looks healthy and happy. Sharp-eyed show fans have wondered if her schoolwork is on track due to the fact that preemies can need additional educational support later in life, and the little girl has suffered a seizure, as the site reported.
But without concerns relayed from the Duggar clan, Josie appears to be doing just great.
Sarah Drew
Grey's Anatomy fans know her as Dr. April Kepner, but Sarah Drew did way more than play an anguished mom on TV; she lived the experience as well, according to website Baby Gaga.
After Drew suffered from preeclampsia with her first child — son Micah — she went on to welcome a daughter, Hannah, who arrived early, the site noted.
Trista Sutter
She was the first Bachelorette ever and lived happily ever after with handsome firefighter hubby Ryan. But Sutter had a rough go with her pregnancy with oldest child, son Maxwell, who Parents magazine confirmed was born at 36 weeks via emergency C-section after Sutter had a preeclampsia diagnosis. Fox News reported that the diagnosis, coming in Sutter's ninth month, in 2007, the couple to have to make a decision to give consent for early delivery or risk Sutter going into serious liver failure. Don't worry, though, everyone's happy and well these days.
