Sofia Richie Grainge recently opened up on the She MD podcast, hosted by her own OBGYN, Dr. Thais Aliabadi (aka “Dr. A”) and women’s advocate and influencer Mary Alice Haney. During the episode, the model shared her harrowing experience at 32 weeks pregnant and revealed the diagnosis she received after welcoming her daughter, Eloise, in May with husband Elliot Grainge.
Sofia Richie Grainge’s Pregnancy Complication
“I had a great pregnancy up until about 32 weeks” she began. “I woke up one morning and I texted Dr. A and 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.”
Graine continued, “She was like, ‘You know what? Actually, I think you should go see the fetal specialist to monitor, to make sure that everything’s okay, and then you’ll go home. It’s not a big deal.’
Thank God she said that, because they hooked me up to the monitor and they were like, ‘You’re in active labor,'” Grainge continued. “I was really terrified.” After “begging” to go home, Dr. A allowed her to but placed her on strict bed rest. She remained on bed rest for the next six weeks, experiencing contractions until she was finally “induced at 38 weeks.”
Sofia Richie Grainge’s Postpartum Diagnosis
Despite the initial challenges, Grainge described her daughter’s delivery as “fantastic.” But the days that followed weren’t exactly smooth sailing. “I stayed in the hospital for two days. I went home and I blew up like a balloon,” she shared. “Quite literally, just swelled. I felt very ill. … [M]y blood pressure was 165 over 103.” Dr. A diagnosed her with postpartum preeclampsia, a rare condition that the Cleveland Clinic describes as causing a person to have “high blood pressure and high levels of protein in their urine,” and warns that it’s a “serious condition that can lead to brain damage, stroke and death if not treated.”
It wasn’t the effects of preeclampsia that Grainge recalls as the most challenging, but having to leave her daughter. “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. And my poor husband was like, ‘I have to get you to the hospital because the doctor is saying it’s just not safe. It’s not safe that you’re home.’ So I spent 24 hours in the hospital and it was really, really, really hard.”
