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Kim Kardashian West has revealed she was told she had suffered a miscarriage during her first pregnancy.
On Tuesday, the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star appeared on the podcast All’s Fair with family attorney Laura Wasser.
During the podcast, the 39-year-old opened up about the major health complications she experienced during her pregnancies and her decision to have youngest children Chicago and Psalm through surrogacy.
Speaking about her first pregnancy, Kardashian West recalled suffering from severe pain and heavy bleeding, which lead her to believe she had miscarried.
“I thought I had a miscarriage, because I was really heavily bleeding and in so much pain,” Kardashian West explained.
20 celebrities who have opened up about baby lossShow all 20 1 /2020 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss 20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Michelle Obama Michelle Obama revealed in 2018 that both of her daughters were conceived via IVF after the lawyer had suffered an earlier miscarriage. "I felt like I failed because I didn’t know how common miscarriages were because we don’t talk about them," Obama said during an interview with Good Morning America . "We sit in our own pain, thinking that somehow we’re broken.”
20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan In 2015, Priscilla Chan and husband Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, announced that they were expecting a baby girl following three miscarriages ."You feel so hopeful when you learn you’re going to have a child. You start imagining who they’ll become and dreaming of hopes for their future. You start making plans, and then they’re gone. It’s a lonely experience,” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook. “Most people don’t discuss miscarriages because you worry your problems will distance you or reflect upon you, as if you’re defective or did something to cause this. “In today’s open and connected world, discussing these issues doesn’t distance us; it brings us together. It creates understanding and tolerance and it gives us hope.”
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Gwyneth Paltrow In 2013, Gwyneth Paltrow revealed she lost her third pregnancy, and that the miscarriage threatened her life. “My children ask me to have a baby all the time," she told You Magazine . “And you never know, I could squeeze one more in. I am missing my third. I’m thinking about it. But I had a really bad experience when I was pregnant with my third. It didn’t work out and I nearly died."
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Beyonce Beyonce spoke publicly about the miscarriage she suffered before becoming pregnant with Blue Ivy in her 2013 HBO special, "Life is But a Dream." The singer described her experience as "the saddest thing" she had ever experienced. “About two years ago, I was pregnant for the first time and I heard the heartbeat, which was the most beautiful music I ever heard in my life," Beyonce said. I picked out names, I envisioned what my child would look like… I was feeling very maternal. I flew back to New York to get my check up, and no heartbeat. I went into the studio and wrote the saddest song I’ve ever written in my life called Heartbeat."
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Hilaria and Alec Baldwin In April 2019, Hilaira Baldwin revealed in an Instagram post that she was in the process of experiencing a miscarriage. Explaining why she decided to share her story on social media, Baldwin later said: "I want women who have gone through this to know: there is nothing wrong with you. "You are not alone. I know this didn't happen because I did something wrong. This is just nature."
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness In 2012, Hugh Jackman opened up about the infertility struggles he and his wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, had experienced. "It is a difficult time. The miscarriage thing, apparently it happens to one in three pregnancies, but it's very, very rarely talked about.... It's almost secretive," Jackman said. "But it's a good thing to talk about. It's more common and it's tough, there's a grieving process you have to go through."
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Pink The singer said on a 2010 episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she was reluctant to share about being pregnant with her daughter Willow because of a previous miscarriage. "I was just really nervous, and I have had a miscarriage before," she said. She eventually wrote the song "Beam Me Up" about her experience, which includes the lyrics "Just beam me up, give me a minute, I don't know what I'd say in it. I'd probably just stare, happy just to be there, holding your face."
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Lindsay Lohan In March 2014, Lindsay Lohan revealed that a painful miscarriage was the reason she missed some filming for her docuseries, Lindsay . "No one knows this…I had a miscarriage for those two weeks that I took off,” Lohan said. “I couldn’t move. I was sick. And mentally that messes with you. Watching this series, I just know how I felt at that moment and I can relate to that girl, which sounds kind of crazy. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, this is really sad. Who’s helping her?’”
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Lily Allen Lily Allen has spoken candidly about having a miscarriage in 2008 and a stillbirth, losing a baby boy at six months pregnant in 2010. “It was horrendous and something I would not wish on my worst enemy,” she said of the stillbirth. “I have dealt with it, you know, as being at one with it. But it’s not something that you get over. I held my child and it was really horrific and painful, one of the hardest things that can happen to a person.”
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Celine Dion Before welcoming twin sons via IVF, Dion had a miscarriage. Speaking of the experience, she said: “They said that I was pregnant and a couple of days after my husband and I were not pregnant again. We didn’t want to feel like we were playing yo-yo. But we did have a miscarriage…I never gave up. "But I can tell you that it was physically and emotionally exhausting."
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Nicole Kidman While married to Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman experienced complications in two pregnancies. The first was an ectopic pregnancy at 23, while the second was a miscarriage and occurred about a decade later. In an interview with Marie Claire , she said: "I had a miscarriage at the end of my marriage, but I had an ectopic pregnancy at the beginning of my marriage. It was incredibly traumatic for me."
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Demi Moore In her memoir, Inside Out , Demi Moore recalled how she became pregnant not long after she started dating Ashton Kutcher in 2003. Speaking of the loss in an interview with Good Morning America , Moore said: "You could see combination of his dread and it shifting then immediately in to matter of fact, practical, information. Because it was unquestionable. There was no heartbeat."
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Kirstie Alley Opening up about the emotional toll of her miscarriage, Kirstie Alley said: "When the baby was gone, I just didn’t really get over it. Neither did my body. I so thoroughly convinced my body that it was still pregnant after nine months that I had milk coming from my breasts. I was still grieving, and I had just been told it was very possible I would never be able to have children.”
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Tana and Gordon Ramsay Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and wife Tana have four children—but in 2016 they shared that Tana miscarried five months into her fifth pregnancy. "We had a devastating weekend as Tana has sadly miscarried our son at five months," Ramsay wrote on Facebook alongside a photo of Tana after she finished an Ironman triathlon. "We're together healing as a family, but we want to thank everyone again for all your amazing support and well wishes."
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Sharon Stone In 2012, Sharon Stone revealed that she has suffered three second-trimester pregnancy losses. "The last time I lost the baby, I went into 36 hours of labour," she recalled. "While we were at the hospital, our adoption attorney called." Stone went on to adopt three sons, Roan, Quinn and Laird. The actor said she was unable to have children due to an autoimmune condition that made it difficult for her to carry a pregnancy to full-term.
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Gabrielle Union In 2018, Gabrielle Union announced that she and husband Dwayne Wade had welcomed their first child together, a baby girl, via a surrogate. The star previously revealed she had suffered at least eight miscarriages and three years of failed IVF treatments. In an interview with Women’s Health , the actor said that using a surrogate to carry her child made her feel like “surrendering to failure”. “There’s nothing more that I wanted than to cook my own baby,” Union said. “The idea of [using a surrogate] felt like surrendering to failure.”
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Nicola Sturgeon Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon decided to speak about her pain at miscarrying a baby in 2011 in the hope of challenging some of the “assumptions and judgments” made about women who do not have children. The SNP leader said she was in the early stages of her pregnancy and preparing to share the news when the miscarriage occurred. “Sometimes, for whatever reason, having a baby just doesn't happen – no matter how much we might want it to,” Sturgeon said. “Judgements and assumptions shouldn't be made about what are personal choices and experiences.”
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Courteney Cox Courteney Cox recently admitted that it was “terrible having to be funny” while filming Friends after suffering a miscarriage. Speaking in an interview, the actor explained: “I remember one time I just had a miscarriage and Rachel (played by Jennifer Aniston) was giving birth. “It was like that same time. Oh my God, it was terrible having to be funny.” After marring David Arquette in 1999, Cox had a total of seven miscarriages caused by anti-bodies that attacked the foetus. After two rounds of IVF she welcomed her daughter Coco in 2004.
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Mariah Carey After announcing that she was pregnancy in 2010, Mariah Carey revealed that her first pregnancy with Nick Cannon ended in miscarriage. 'Unfortunately that was a time where [the doctor] said, "I'm sorry but the pregnancy is unsuccessful",” Carey said. "It kind of shook us both and took us to a place that was really dark and difficult.”
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20 celebrities who have opened up about baby loss Leandra Medine In 2016, style blogger Leandra Medine, aka Man Repeller, announced that she suffered a miscarriage following IVF. Speaking about the loss on her website, Medine said: “It felt impossible to deal with emotionally, but even harder to try and suppress, which I so wanted to. “Over-sharer that I am, though, if anyone is to ask how I’m doing I can’t help but tell them, ‘I lost a baby last week, but it’s going to be okay.’ Almost as if it’s a badge of honor: I can get pregnant, too, you know.”
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“Went in, because you have to go and do a D&C [dilation and curettage] to clean out your miscarriage.”
The mother-of-four went on to say that her doctor was unable to find a heartbeat, and told her: “Oh, you had a miscarriage.”
However, when she returned to the doctor the next day on Thanksgiving, the baby’s heartbeat was detected.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This is a sign, it’s Thanksgiving morning’," Kardashian West said.
The reality star’s pregnancy difficulties were far from over, however as she revealed she went on to suffer from pre-eclampsia and placenta accrete .
The NHS states that pre-eclampsia is a condition that disrupts the blood supply between mother and baby via the placenta, while placenta accrete is categorised as a condition in pregnancy where the placenta is attached and embedded too deeply into the wall of the uterus.
”We ended up obviously having North, and I had a really bad pregnancy: I had pre-eclampsia, I delivered six weeks early, she was four pounds and I had something called placenta accreta, where the placenta grows inside your uterus,“ Kardashian West said.
”It's honestly what people die from in childbirth, so you have to get the placenta out within a certain amount of time."
Kardashian West added that conceiving her next child, Saint, was no easier, revealing she had tried to get pregnant for more than a year before resorting to using an embryo she had previously stored.
After she finally became pregnant, Kardashian West went on to suffer from pre-eclampsia and placenta accreta again, describing with both conditions as ”a little worse” the second time.
The star also opened up about using a surrogate to have her two youngest children and revealed the reason she used two different women was because the first fell pregnant with her own child.
“She was so happy but so nervous to tell me because we had planned on doing it again,” she said.
“I still stay in communication with both of my surrogates, maybe not on a daily basis, but you kind of plan that out ahead of time.”
Later on in the podcast, Kardashian West said that while she liked the idea of a bigger family she was not sure she had the time or energy for another child.
“I just can't do more because I really want to go to school and I really want to do all of this stuff,” she said.
“I'm going to turn 40. I don't want to be an old mom. I think four is good and I want to pay attention. I think everyone needs attention.”
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can contact stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands on 0808 164 3332 or email helpline@sands.org.uk . The helpline is open from 9.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday, and until 9.30pm on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
You can also find bereavement support at The Lullaby Trust by calling 0808 802 6868 or emailing support@lullabytrust.org.uk .
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