A year later, Teen Mom star Kailyn Lowry is finally sharing the details of what happened when she brought her son Rio into the world, even though it isn't easy for her to talk about it. In a new episode of her podcast, Barely Famous, Kailyn and boyfriend Elijah Scott opened up about Rio's "traumatizing" birth, and how doctors struggled to make sure he was able to breathe on his own. Now that time has passed, it appears Kail is finally ready to process the situation publicly.
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It all started when Kailyn started having early contractions.
She went into labor a month before her due date, and when she went to the hospital to get checked out, Rio "failed every last bit" of the tests they ran on him.
"So that was a deciding factor that they were going to augment the process by speeding things up. I don't know how I feel about that now," she said. "I had never experienced an augmented birth and that was a big part of it too."
17 hours later, Rio had arrived.
Even though it was a long labor, Rio didn't mess around when the time came for Kailyn to push! In fact, Kail and Elijah nicknamed him "Mr. Rocket" for how quickly he made his way into the world.
But once he was out, it became obvious that he was struggling to breathe.
Doctors said it was 'hard to find' Rio's breathing.
Although Kailyn was in a panic, Elijah stayed calm so he wouldn't worry her any further, which he said was "traumatic in a way."
"They took him over to the little baby stand thing and he was barely breathing and also had fluid in his lungs," Elijah said. "I'm worried about him and you're over here crying asking if he's OK. And I'm like, 'Yes, he's fine.'"
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Kail said there were 'eight or nine' nurses working on her son immediately after he was born.
Rio didn't cry for "days" after his birth, and it was a very scary situation for Kail, who hadn't experienced anything like this when older children Isaac, Lincoln, Lux, and Creed were born.
"I didn't know what was going on. We didn't hear anything. He wasn't breathing and they kept saying he wasn't breathing, so that's where I was like, 'OK, this is near death,'" she said.
Today, Rio is thriving.
In November, Kail and Elijah celebrated Rio's first birthday with a How the Grinch Stole Christmas-themed party, and recently, his twin brother and sister have joined the family.
Here's hoping that we learn more about baby Rio soon. There's no doubt his big brothers are happy to have him there!
