Gwyneth Paltrow Reveals She “Almost Died” Giving Birth to Her Daughter, Apple Martin
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Gwyneth Paltrow shared that she gave birth to her two children via C-section.
On Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, the actress said her daughter was an emergency cesarean and that they “almost died.”
The 49-year-old also opened up about the pressure social media puts on women to bounce back quickly postpartum.
Gwyneth Paltrow is not one to keep her personal life a secret from her fans. In her six-episode Netflix show, The Goop Lab, she interviews experts on sensitive topics from aging and psychedelics, to orgasms and psychic mediums. And her newest mini-series Sex, Love & Goop, which premiered just days ago, Paltrow explores the sexual relationships of other couples. But in a recent interview, the 49-year-old shed some light on one of her own intense life-changing experiences: an emergency C-section that proved almost fatal.
The Iron Man star spoke candidly about childbirth while a guest on Dax Shepard and Monica Padman's podcast Armchair Expert. Paltrow revealed that she had C-sections for both of her children: daughter Apple, 17, and son Moses, 15. Both of which she co-parents with ex-husband and the kids' father, Chris Martin.
“I had two cesareans. My daughter was an emergency. It was crazy–we almost died. It was, like, not good," she said.
According to the Mayo Clinic, a cesarean section (known as a C-section), is a surgical procedure used to deliver a baby through incisions in the abdomen and uterus. While common and sometimes necessary, the procedure is not without its risks. Like any major surgery, risks include breathing problems, surgical injury, infection, postpartum hemorrhage, reactions to anesthesia, blood clots, and more, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Paltrow didn’t go into any additional details about why she and Apple almost didn't make it, but she did comment on the difficulty she had postpartum—specifically, coming to terms with her changing body.
“You don’t think about this when you’re young and healthy and everything’s good,” Paltrow said in the interview. “But as you start to get older and things go funny, or you need surgery, or things age and something happens, like, a body part is different, there’s this weird mourning that happens. It’s like there’s this weird grief.”
The Goop founder added that it can be challenging to accept the changes your body takes on, even if there’s no reason to be embarrassed.
When discussing the physical evidence of Apple's intense birth, Paltrow said, “There’s a big scar across your body and you’re like ‘oh, wow, like, that didn’t used to be there’. And it’s not that it’s bad or you want to judge it, but you’re just like ‘oh my god,’” she said.
Paltrow also gave a nod of support to modern moms who see tons of postpartum bodies on social media that encourage a culture of snapping back immediately after childbirth.
“Thank god there wasn’t Instagram when I had babies. Because now it’s like, if I see someone, ‘oh I just gave birth two week ago and I have a completely washboard stomach,’ and I’m like, ‘wow that’s not what I [looked like],’” the 49-year-old said. “And great, more power to the lady with the washboard [abs], but that is totally the exception and now we’re being fed all of these other images of what we’re supposed to look like all the time–babies, no babies, whatever.”
The Politician actress, along with the podcast's co-hosts, continued to discuss the way many women feel the need to compete with each other when it comes to childbirth, and Paltrow hypothesized that it stems from “past perfectionism,” but she says women should simply focus on supporting each other instead.
“I just think women really need to be friends with each other and all the judgment around how you have a baby, do you breastfeed, do you not, this, that, are you going to work, are you not going to work...guess what? Whatever it is, it’s ok,” she said.
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