Scheana Shay’s newborn daughter Summer Moon is happy and healthy now, but the mother-daughter pair had a traumatic labor. In the May 14 episode of her podcast Scheananigans with Scheana Shay, the Vanderpump Rules star told fans that after being at the hospital for almost 24-hours, she was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy complication that causes high blood pressure and can result in liver or kidney damage, and HELLP syndrome, another life-threatening complication that is related to pre-eclampsia.
“It ended up being amazing but it was really scary,” Shay explained during the podcast. “Basically my liver was struggling. I was borderline about to have a stroke or a seizure.”
During her podcast, Shay said at first she was afraid Summer was stillborn after being born “limp” and quiet. “It was a lot of scares,” she said.
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The day after Summer’s birth, Shay shared an update about her traumatic birth.
“Almost 24 hours after being induced, my blood pressure was extremely elevated. My doctor said I was lucky, and we caught this just in time to treat as it’s very unusual to be caught so late, in postpartum. Until this morning I was on a magnesium drip that made me extremely lethargic and flu-like, shivering uncontrollably to the point where I felt like I was seizing. Having not caught this condition in time, that would have been likely. I am still being monitored closely for elevated liver enzymes and low blood platelets and not sure how much longer we will be here.”
Pre-eclampsia is a relatively common pregnancy complication that, if left untreated, can result in fetal and/or maternal death and is generally caught and treated in the weeks leading up to delivery. HELLP syndrome is a less common and more dangerous variant of pre-eclampsia.
“The fact that they caught it, I am so lucky. It literally is a life-threatening disease and it could have been fatal,” an emotional Shay told listeners. “It’s the second-highest cause of death in pregnant women.”
After that scary start, mother and baby are doing great and, according to dad, Brock Davies’ contribution to the podcast, Shay is a “champ.”
These are some of the reality-TV alumnae we love to follow as they tackle motherhood.
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