Let the name game begin.
Multiple sources tell E! News that Kim Kardashian has decided to have another baby with husband Kanye West. The E! reality star and the Grammy-winning musician are already parents to daughter North West, 4, and son Saint West, 18 months. Because Kim has placenta accreta, making a third pregnancy potentially life-threatening, they used an agency to hire a surrogate.
The question of whether to have another child is one Kim has been public about in the past.
In the Nov. 13, 2016 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kim—who celebrated her third wedding anniversary May 2—said she "would love to maybe" have another baby. So, she talked to OB/GYN Dr. Paul Crane to weigh her options, given her complicated pregnancies and deliveries. Because she suffered from toxemia and a retained placenta, which was "traumatic" on her body, the odds of her having another difficult pregnancy are higher, Dr. Crane explained.
"We're always worried about the next serious complication...You're always taking a little bit of a chance. There are situations where retained placenta could be life and death," Dr. Crane told Kim. At her big sister Kourtney Kardashian's recommendation, Kim met with fertility specialist Dr. Huang to get a second opinion. He, too, said she'd likely experience a "high-risk pregnancy."
Kim has spoken often about her fertility issues. In fact, as she admitted to E! News in 2015, "Every medical issue that you could probably have, I feel like I get, and I worry so much about it." And though she didn't "think it was possible" to get pregnant a second time, she had a "miserable" time carrying Saint. "That's my experience and I'm not gonna pretend that it's not."
The E! reality star added, "I just don't think pregnancy and me really agree with each other."
In the Apr. 2 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kim spoke to Kourtney again about her surrogacy plans. "I'm definitely leaning more towards I want to try," she said. "After talking to Kanye, I think I always knew that surrogacy was an option, but I didn't think it was that realistic of an option, and now I feel like that's my reality. I feel like surrogacy really is the only other option for me." Either way, Kim would remain hopeful: "Whatever's meant to be will be."
Kim previously blogged about the hardships of her first pregnancy, when she was diagnosed with early-onset preeclampsia and had to deliver North at just 34 weeks (about six weeks early).
At her doctor's insistence, her labor was induced. Kim's labor didn't come out, as it should have, and "stayed attached inside my uterus, which is a condition called placenta accreta," she wrote. "This is a high-risk condition that happens when the placenta grows too deeply into the uterine wall. My doctor had to stick his entire arm in me and detach the placenta with his hand, scraping it away from my uterus with his fingernails. How disgusting and painful!!! My mom was crying; she had never seen anything like this before. My delivery was fairly easy, but then going through that—it was the most painful experience of my life! They gave me a second epidural but we were racing against time, so I just had to deal."
Kim later had to have surgery to remove a piece of the placenta, followed by a second surgery to remove the remaining scar tissue. "This was all preventing me from getting pregnant the second time around," she wrote. "I have amazing doctors that helped me through the entire process and I'm so grateful I was able to conceive again!" Even so, if she were to get pregnant a third time, her risk of having preclampsia and placenta accreta will be higher than it was before.
Given her upbringing, is it any wonder Kim wants a big family? "I grew up with siblings," she explained on Today in 2014. "If I could just snap my fingers and have four, I would have four."
Neither Kim nor Kanye has publicly commented on the surrogacy news.
For more on the couple's surrogacy, tune in to Daily Pop at noon, only on E!
For additional details on their family plans, watch E! News tonight at 7 and 11, only on E!