Sofia Richie Breaks Silence On Terrifying Experience Before & After Child Birth

Sofia Richie's journey through a difficult pregnancy and welcoming her baby is undoubtedly one for the books!

The model bared it all about her struggles during her pregnancy and postpartum troubles in a sit down with her celebrity OBGYN, Dr. Thais Aliabadi.

Sofia Richie and her music executive husband, Elliot Grainge, welcomed their daughter on May 20, 2024, after tying the knot in the South of France last April.

The model expressed her excitement to finally be able to talk about her journey through motherhood as she noted that "people really don't talk about all the things that go wrong and all the things after you give birth that are so hard."

The new mom recalled that she had a seamless pregnancy journey until 32 weeks when she sent a concerning text to Dr. Aliabadi to affirm if the signs she was seeing were normal. The model explained:

"At 32 weeks I woke up and I was like, 'Hey, I woke up and I'm really tired today. My back really hurts. I feel a little crampy.' And I really thought it was going to be another one of those, 'Yeah, babe, that's pregnancy. You're going to be fine, but you can come in if you want me to check you' type situations."

She added that her OBGYN advised her to see the fetal specialist instead to make sure everything was okay. Per PEOPLE, Richie noted in the podcast that the decision changed everything as they hooked her up to monitor and announced she was in active labor, which made her terrified.

Richie continued that she spent six days in the hospital and began pleading to go home afterward, but her OBGYN assured her she needed to be closely monitored during the bed rest period.

She disclosed that she was on bed rest for the next six weeks and kept contracting till she was finally induced at 38 weeks, resulting in a "fantastic delivery."

Dr. Aliabadi commended Richie's strength during her tumultuous pregnancy journey, stating, "She's amazing. This girl does not complain, by the way. What she went through,it was really traumatic. Six weeks, she was having contractions." Richie then added:

"I gave birth and I was like, 'Wow, I really did that. I did six weeks or however many weeks of contractions and I have my beautiful daughter. I'm healthy. I'm safe. She's healthy. She's safe."

However, her fantastic delivery was not the end of her challenges, as Richie noted that two days after welcoming her baby girl, she went home and began to swell.

The physical change prompted her to consult Dr. Aliabadi, who sent over a nurse to take her blood pressure, and they discovered it was 165 over 103, which the OBGYN described as "postpartum preeclampsia."

According to the medical practitioner and podcaster, the disease is a "rare condition that occurs when you have high blood pressure and excess protein in your urine soon after childbirth."

Richie noted that despite the pain she was experiencing at that time, the "hardest thing I ever had to do, I think literally, was leave my daughter two days postpartum. It was horrendous. I actually hid in the closet and cried."

She described her husband's efforts at getting her quickly to the hospital, where she spent the hardest 24 hours of her life. Richie also spoke about feeling guilty, in her words:

"My mom guilt kicked in. I don't know why, from the second Eloise was born, I was like, 'I can't miss an awake time. I can't miss a moment. I don't want someone else taking care of my kid.' "

Last year, The Blast reported that Richie dropped the wonderful news of her baby girl in a shoot with Vogue Magazine. She shared pictures of her growing belly in a black-and-white inspired portrait featuring her in an oversized shirt with panties.

She recalled the moment she discovered she was pregnant, noting the signs began showing on her trip to Milan for fashion week before a Prada show.

Upon her return to Los Angeles, she decided to take a test before attending an Ed Sheeran concert with her husband and her friend, where she planned to take a few drinks and wanted to be safe.

"Elliot was already used to me taking tests randomly," she explained in the interview. "So he didn't really flinch when I said I was checking. I was taking one of those really crappy at-home tests, and there was the faintest of lines. I was so used to seeing negatives that I knew when something looked even kind of different."

The moment of truth finally came as she and her husband turned over all three tests and saw two bold ones. Richie shared that her husband's joy knew no bounds, and they both tried "so hard not to scream it from the rooftops."

On how they found out about the gender of their baby, Richie explained that she had her OBGYN text her assistant the gender and then they bought two party poppers with the colors pink and blue. The "Ocean's Eight" star noted:

"She left out the one with the correct color inside, and Elliot and I popped it together. We both really thought it was a boy, so it was a true shock. My dream in life is to have a daughter [though], and Elliot is really excited for a girl too. I think it's so typical for boys to want boys, but he has a lot of sisters. It was really sweet. He's very sensitive."

Sofia Richie's strength and vulnerability to share her troubles is nothing short of impressive!