Never utter the words "never" when it comes to Hailey Bieber. The model revealed that her first pregnancy with son Jack Blues—whom she shares with husband Justin Bieber—was an unexpected delight, despite doctors' previous warnings that getting pregnant might be challenging due to her uterine septum.
"It was a pleasant surprise," Hailey told co-hosts Mary Alice Haney and Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, who is also her OB/GYN, on the March 3 episode of the SHE MD podcast. "I had a septum in my uterus, and Dr. A kept saying, 'Well, we need to keep an eye on this before you get pregnant because it could potentially be an issue.'"
Recalling how Dr. Aliabadi had mentioned that a "small surgery" might even be necessary before she decided to have children, Hailey, 29, added, "I was like, 'Okay. Well, I'm not thinking about getting pregnant right now, so we'll just cross that bridge when we get there.' And then I magically got pregnant."
The turn of events was not only surprising but also concerning for Dr. Aliabadi, who had previously warned Hailey—who had suffered a mini stroke and undergone heart surgery in 2022—not to get pregnant. "And then she calls me, and she's like, 'I'm pregnant!'" Dr. Aliabadi said. "And I'm like, 'No!'"
The reason for the gynecologist's concern was due to Hailey's genetic uterine septum, which carries a higher risk of miscarriage or early delivery. As Dr. Aliabadi explained, "Imagine you have a normally shaped uterus. But inside the cavity of the uterus, imagine this little wall that comes in."
"You can have a mild, moderate, or severe septum," Dr. Aliabadi continued. "Basically, we measure it on ultrasound. If it's less than 1 cm, it's mild. If it's 1 to 2 cm, it's moderate." Noting that Hailey's case was moderate, she added, "It affects 1 to 3 percent of women... And so the risk for her was about maybe 25 to 40 percent risk of miscarriage and a 10 to 20 percent risk of preterm delivery."
The Rhode founder pointed out that the chance of an early delivery was their "bigger scare," given her medical history and the fact that her mom, Kennya Baldwin, had experienced two pre-term labors with her and sister Alaia Baldwin, 33. "I was convinced I was going to go into labor early because of my mom's history...but my body had its own plan," Hailey said, noting that she ultimately took a PreTRM test to determine the risk of delivering Jack before 37 weeks. "Because as the baby grew, the septum expanded. Everything opened and did what it needed to do, thankfully."
Despite the scary circumstances surrounding her first pregnancy, Hailey remained cool, calm, and collected throughout the journey. As Dr. Aliabadi put it, "I never forget telling her about the risks. She looked at me and said, 'You know what? I believe everything's gonna work out fine.' And I looked at her and said, 'I think so too.'"
Indeed, everything went well with Jack's delivery, and now Hailey and Justin—who married in 2018—are embracing life as first-time parents. "I just love spending time with my son," Hailey said of her 18-month-old during Vogue's Forces of Fashion event in Australia in February. "He's growing so fast and time is flying by. It starts to become more and more real how much you want to soak up that time."
