Maya Vander is opening up about her devastating pregnancy loss.
As we previously reported, the Selling Sunset star revealed earlier this month that she had experienced the unimaginable tragedy of a stillbirth. In a new interview with E! News, she opened up further about the situation and why she had decided to share the tragedy with her fans.
Related: Jessie J Recalls Going Into ‘Work Mode’ Hours After Suffering Miscarriage
Recalling the period leading up to the loss, she explained she had “felt less movements” from the baby, but everything had gone fine at her weekly checkup. Days later, though, her gynecologist “couldn’t find the heartbeat” during an appointment. She shared:
“I did an ultrasound and they confirmed, unfortunately, that the baby died. It was just a matter of like, ‘I’m 38 weeks. I need to have a delivery. I need to go to the hospital and deliver the baby.’ I just went to the hospital and I went to a delivery, and unfortunately the outcome was not what I was anticipating.”
Even more heartbreaking, her husband couldn’t be with her during the delivery because had had tested positive for COVID. Afterwards, she reflected:
“We didn’t know what to do first. I’m like, I don’t even want to see the baby and get attached but then I’m like, you know what? It is my baby. It is my son. We don’t know what happened. We sent the body to an autopsy and hopefully we will have some answers. That can take 30 to 45 days, unfortunately. Meantime, we decided to do a burial to give him the respect that he deserves and a place for us to go and grieve. It’s a very tough process to look at your baby basically dead. I don’t wish it on anyone.”
Maya added:
“I didn’t have the chance to connect to him as much but it just kills me that he didn’t get the love that I could’ve possibly given him, because I was ready. I was so ready for a third kid. And it’s just not fair to him. I just don’t know what happened, so that’s the closure that I still don’t have. Maybe we with the autopsy we’ll get the closure, but as of now everything is a big question mark.”
At the time of the interview, the couple was still anticipating the funeral. The reality star revealed:
“We went yesterday to the funeral home. Basically you have the baby in a casket. It’s very heavy. We wanted to see him again to say goodbye. It’s very hard mentally to do it but we did it, me and my husband. And tomorrow we’ll do the burial. I’m sure it’s going to be a very tough day for us. I do want to be done with it already, so I can kind of let go, in a way. One day at a time.”
While her two children are still too young to understand what happened, she said of her 2-year-old son Aiden:
“[When] he sees my husband and I, when we cry, he tells us, ‘Don’t be said, mommy’ and it breaks my heart even more. He didn’t ask me, ‘Where is the baby?’ because I don’t think he understands. I think once they do understand, I would always tell them they had a brother. They will know the story.”
Asked about her co-stars on the Netflix series, the 39-year-old shared:
“They always check on me. They text me. They do what they can do to support. I think they were all shocked and very, very sad for me, and they’ve been just very supportive. Very, very sweet. All of them.”
The reality show played a large role in why Maya decided to come forward about the stillbirth, as she was pregnant during the upcoming fifth season and she “can’t hide the fact that I didn’t have a baby.” However, she also explained:
“I realized that I’m not the only woman who had this experience. When I Googled, I read a bunch of stories about other women who went through [the] same situation that I’m in right now. For me personally, it helps me with other women who experienced what I have and who intimately understand the pain—the painful situation—because no one prepares for something like that.”
Asked about her current support system, the realtor replied:
“I wish I could just be a strong person and just brush everything off, but it’s just not the case. People know my pregnancy because of the show, so a lot of women reach out to me. They send me emails. They share their stories. It helps me to read—and especially a lot of them did have a successful delivery and a baby after. That’s something that I would really like to have: I really would like to have another baby and have a nice sweet experience at the end.”
Related: Monique Coleman’s HSM Co-Star Corbin Bleu Supported Her After Miscarriage
She concluded by saying:
“I just wanted to say that I’m very thankful to all our friends and support system. We’ve been getting a lot of love and it is just nice to know that people care and they try to be strong for us. I appreciate all the help. To all the women out there that experience the same thing, it’s not their fault and just to be strong.”
We can’t imagine what a difficult experience this must have been for Maya. We appreciate her opening up about it, and continue to keep her and her family in our thoughts.
[Image via Real Estate With Howard Drukarsh/YouTube]
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