The Poosh founder explained in May that she was having an extra ultrasound at home so all of her and husband Travis Barker’s children could glimpse their newest sibling ahead of time. Then the doctor performing the screening noticed something was amiss.
Kardashian was sent “to see a couple specialists” before it was decided that her baby would need surgery while still in her womb. The cause, she revealed on Thursday’s episode of “The Kardashians,” was fluid in her little one’s lungs.
“As someone who has had three really easy pregnancies in the past, I wasn’t prepared for the fear of rushing into urgent fetal surgery,” she posted on Instagram in September 2023 alongside a photo of herself holding hands with Barker, a hospital bracelet on her wrist. “I don’t think anyone who hasn’t been through a similar situation can begin to understand that feeling of fear. I have a whole new understanding and respect for the mamas who have had to fight for their babies while pregnant.”
She called Rocky’s condition “super rare” on Thursday and said they lucky to have caught it.
Her doctors informed her that the condition was random and not related to her age — Kardashian was 45 when she and Barker welcomed their son, Rocky Thirteen, into the world on Nov. 1.
However, even with the surgery completed, the rest of Kardashian’s pregnancy wasn’t smooth sailing.
“There’s a hole in the amniotic sac from where they had to go in,” she explained on the Season 5 premiere of her family’s show. “I’m not allowed to drive. I’m not allowed to stand for more than 20 minutes. I’m really not leaving the house.”
Furthermore, her baby wasn’t out of the woods either. The fluid in Rocky’s lungs began to return after the operation, leading Kardashian to research the connection between positive thinking and health.
“I started talking to the baby every day, saying my prayers,” she said on the show. “After I had that mindset shift, the fluid was completely gone and we had not one single problem after.”
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In addition to 7-month-old Rocky, Kardashian has three children — Mason, 13, Penelope, 11, and Reign, 8 — with former boyfriend Scott Disick. Barker shares Alabama, 17, and Landon, 20, with his ex Shanna Moakler, and he also stepped up to parent Moakler’s daughter from a previous relationship, Atiana De La Hoya, who is 24.
The couple tied the knot in June 2022 after a year of dating in a trio of ceremonies in Las Vegas, Santa Barbara and Portofino, Italy. Kourtney cleverly revealed their pregnancy a year later with a cardboard sign in the audience of a Blink-182 show after multiple rounds of failed IVF treatments.