Gigi Hadid Called Khai’s Natural Birth the “Craziest Pain” of Her Life
"I had to dig deep."
People often say, you don’t truly get a grasp on what the female body is capable of withstanding until you witness someone up close go through a pregnancy or deliver a baby. In the March 2021 Vogue cover story, Gigi Hadid pulled the curtain back on her labor and delivery experience, calling it the “the craziest pain” of her life.
Having a home birth wasn’t Hadid’s first choice and it meant no help from an epidural. “There definitely was a point where I was like, I wonder what it would be like with an epidural, how it would be different,” she continued. “I knew it was going to be the craziest pain in my life, but you have to surrender to it and be like, ‘This is what it is.’ I loved that.”
She and boyfriend and singer Zayn Malik welcomed their daughter Khai—the Arabic translation for the chosen one— in September 2020.
All Hadid could hope for was for her sweet newborn to have a peaceful bringing to the world.
Because the supermodel would be giving birth in the middle of a pandemic, the couple scratched their original birth plan of Hadid delivering at their New York City hospital. Instead, they ventured to their beloved rural farm in Pennsylvania and opted for a home birth where they could be surrounded by Hadid’s immediate family including her mom, Yolanda, and sister Bella.
“What I really wanted from my experience was to feel like, Okay, this is a natural thing that women are meant to do,” she explained.
Hadid added that having her family next her was an experience she would never forget, “I know my mom and Zayn and Bella were proud of me, but at certain points I saw each of them in terror.”
Yolanda couldn’t be happier for her daughter, who is now getting to experience all the joys she once did when giving birth to her two daughters. “I’m proud of her face on a magazine, but seeing her give birth was a whole other level of proud,” Yolanda explained. “You go from looking at her as a daughter to looking at her as a fellow mother.”
Hadid is also raising Khai without any outside help. One of the many perks of being a high-paid celebrity is being able to afford extra help whether that be a nanny, baby nurse, housekeeper, or even someone to help with errands like grocery shopping. Hadid isn’t sticking her foot in those waters just yet. She’s determined to raise Khai at home and around family.
“She decided to completely take care of the baby alone,” says her proud mom, “and I think that bond is so important.”
