For many parents, our children’s birthdays rank high among the happiest days of our lives. It’s no different for celebrity moms, who, despite their fabulous careers and achievements, sometimes consider the day their kids came into the world as the most special of all.
The rate of cesarean sections in the United States is around 33 percent — and that includes celebrities, who have C-sections for every single reason that other parents do, from unplanned complications to reasons of convenience. Their birth stories are no less special than anyone else’s, even if they may be a little more harrowing, a little less spontaneous or a little bit different than others.
Here, we take a look at a range of celebrity moms who have had C-sections and hear what they have to say about their birth story. Each one is different and special — not to mention worth the read and worth celebrating.
Beyoncé
When Jay-Z and Beyoncé had their first child, Blue Ivy, everything went as planned. But when Beyoncé became pregnant with twins five years later, in 2017, there were more complications and the twins were born early via emergency C-section.
Beyoncé shared her story with Vogue a few months after the birth, not only giving insight into her own experience but also dispelling some common C-section myths:
"I was swollen from toxemia and had been on bed rest for over a month," she said. "My health and my babies’ health were in danger, so I had an emergency C-section. We spent many weeks in the NICU. My husband was a soldier and such a strong support system for me. I am proud to have been a witness to his strength and evolution as a man, a best friend and a father. I was in survival mode and did not grasp it all until months later."
She also reached out to women who have had a similar birthing story:
"Today I have a connection to any parent who has been through such an experience. After the C-section, my core felt different. It had been major surgery. Some of your organs are shifted temporarily, and in rare cases, removed temporarily during delivery. I am not sure everyone understands that. I needed time to heal, to recover."
Gwen Stefani
Singer Gwen Stefani had three sons with Bush's Gavin Rossdale before their split in 2015. Their first two sons, Kingston James McGregor Rossdale, born in 2006, and Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale, born in 2008, were reportedly breech. In this situation, it can be a much safer decision to have surgery rather than a vaginal birth. Stefani and Rossdale's third child, Apollo Bowie Flynn Rossdale, born in 2014, was also a C-section birth.
Now that the Stefani has been dating fellow musical talent Blake Shelton for several years, rumor has it that they've been trying for a baby — though they aren't taking specific measures to conceive. Chances are, if that were to happen, it would be another C-section for Stefani.
Angelina Jolie
Before Angelina Jolie gave birth to her first biological child, Shiloh Nouvel, in a hospital in Namibia in 2006, an ultrasound revealed that her baby was breech and that a cesarean section was the safest way to birth the baby. When she gave birth to her twins, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline, two years later, Jolie opted for another C-section — again, probably the safest choice considering the situation.
Jolie has been outspoken about her C-section births and certainly not ashamed of the way that these three of her children came into the world.
"I had a C-section, and I found it fascinating," she told Vanity Fair. "I didn't find it a sacrifice, and I didn't find it a painful experience. I found it a fascinating miracle of what a body can do."
Tori Spelling
Tori Spelling had to have an emergency C-section when her first child with husband Dean McDermott, Liam Aaron, entered the world in 2007. In the following years, Spelling had two more children — Stella Doreen and Hattie Margaret — also through C-section. But when she became unexpectedly pregnant a fourth time just months afterward, her fourth C-section and a complicating factor of placenta previa resulted in life-threatening complications and 10 weeks in the hospital.
Luckily, baby Finn Davey was born healthy, and both mother and son got through the birth. When Spelling became unexpectedly pregnant again five years later, she had her fifth and last C-section, which was much more routine than the fourth.
McDermott told People, “The doctor said that considering everything that happened the last time, this is a miracle baby that Tori got pregnant and that it’s OK.”
Serena Williams
Tennis phenomenon Serena Williams was excited to have a vaginal birth, but her plans were put aside when the baby's heart rate dropped during labor. She agreed to an emergency C-section to birth Alexis Olympia, her first child with husband Alexis Ohanian, but she suffered weeks of postpartum complications due to blood clots and other issues.
Williams has been open about her birth story and the trauma that accompanied it.
“Felt like yesterday the doctor walked in, she looked at me and she said, ‘All right, we’re gonna have to give you a C-section,’” Williams told People. “I was still devastated. I think every woman, a part of them, wants to have birth naturally and [to] feel that… when you get a C-section it’s different.”
But after the surgery was over, Williams found peace with her experience. “Once she was OK, everything for me was OK,” she said.
Kate Winslet
When actor Kate Winslet had her first child, Mia, in 2000, she lied about her daughter's birth story for four years. Although she said she had a vaginal birth, in fact she had an emergency C-section for the safety of all involved.
Winslet only revealed the truth when she had her second child, Joe, in 2003.
"I've never talked about this — I've gone to great pains to cover it up. But Mia was an emergency C-section," she told Gotham magazine. "I just said that I had a natural birth because I was so completely traumatized by the fact that I hadn't given birth. I felt like a complete failure."
Joe was born vaginally after 14 hours of labor.
Winslet welcomed a third child, Bear Blaze, with husband Ned Rocknroll in 2013. There's no word on what his birth story was, but we support Winslet and her family either way.
Jennifer Lopez
When all-around star Jennifer Lopez gave birth to twins Maximilian David and Emme Maribel in 2008, she said that her doctors recommended a C-section because of the multiple babies. While Lopez at first regretted that she didn't get to experience a vaginal birth, she also said that witnessing her sister give birth later the same year had her thinking that maybe a C-section was the right choice for her.
"I had a C-section," J.Lo told Wonderwall, "but my sister gave birth six months later — we got pregnant around the same time — and she asked me to be in the delivery room with her, and I was, like, 'Wow!' Because I had twins and that was recommended for me to have a C-section, and there was a part of me [that] had thought, 'I didn't get to do it the way that everybody else does.' But when I saw my sister pushing that baby out, I was like, 'Maybe this was all right! Maybe this was a better out.' So that was an experience."
Pink
Pink was all about having a natural, unmedicated childbirth, but her baby had other plans for her. After two days of labor, Willow Sage was found to be breech, and the safest way out was by emergency C-section.
"I was really looking forward to the whole rite of passage — giving birth perfectly present, unmedicated, in the way nature intended," Pink told People. "But she was in the frank breech position, which is head up with her legs up by her head in a pike position."
Pink wanted to have her second baby at home, but her doctor advised against it, and she and husband Carey Hart traveled to a small clinic for the birth of Jameson Moon in 2016. No word on how that babe came into the world, but we are so glad everyone is healthy and happy.
Amber Rose
Model and actor Amber Rose had a birth plan solidly in mind: an unmedicated home water birth with a midwife and doula at her side. But babies often have plans of their own, and when Rose and her partner, Wiz Khalifa, found out that their baby was inverted at 37 weeks, they had to change their vision of their son's entrance into the world.
"My ideal birth plan was just down the drain," she said, according to Us Weekly. "I tried mugwort, acupuncture and then my last resort was an inversion, which is when you go to the hospital and they manually try to turn your baby," she revealed. "They push his head down and push his butt up… It hurt a lot. It was very painful. I cried."
When the baby wouldn't budge, the couple decided on a C-section for everyone's safety.
"When I went in I was terrified, shaking. I was so scared," Rose said. "But then Wiz came in [and] he just talked to me the whole time. All of a sudden we heard Sebastian cry and then we both started crying. We were like, 'Oh my gosh, our baby's here!'"
Kate Hudson
When Kate Hudson was in labor with her first son, Ryder, in 2005, she was given the choice between going home to labor or staying at the hospital and getting a C-section. She chose the latter, mostly to avoid more run-ins with the paparazzi.
She took flak from fans in 2017 for saying in a Cosmo Q&A session that having a C-section was the laziest thing that she's ever done, but Hudson later explained that it was her story, not anyone else's. We agree.
She had her second son, Bingham, in a vaginal birth, and now she's expecting again, this time with boyfriend Danny Fujikawa. No matter what her birth story is, we hope everyone is healthy and happy.
Leave a Comment