Kate Mara has expressed her “disappointment” after having her first child with husband Jamie Bell delivered via an emergency Caesarean section.
The House Of Cards actress welcomed a daughter last month and has spoken for the first time about the difficult birth.
Speaking on a pregnancy podcast, the 36-year-old revealed she gave birth after three days in labour at a hospital, instead of the at-home birth she wanted.
She had to be induced almost a month early at 36 weeks after being diagnosed with the liver condition Cholestasis, which can cause damage to an unborn baby.
Doctors then performed an emergency Caesarean section after Mara, who married Billy Elliot star Bell, 33, in 2017, developed a fever.
Speaking on Dr Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy Podcast, The Martian star Mara said: “I know a lot of people that have had C-sections that are not planned, that they don’t want to have happen. And most of those people, most of my friends, have said, ‘I just wanted the baby out. I was actually asking for a C-section’.”
However, Mara said that was not the case for her.
She said: “I kept really calm for most of those three days but right before I went in for the C-section, that’s when I sort of (felt) the devastation of it and the disappointment of not being able to experience a birth any way that I had hoped.”
Mara added: “I was genuinely terrified of what that meant and what could happen and all of these things, and then of course just being tired made me that much more scared, I think.”
Despite the difficulties, Mara said she “wouldn’t do anything differently” with the birth because her daughter was born healthy.
She added: “We really did do everything in our power to make it as peaceful and natural and easy for our baby to come out as possible.”
