UPDATE: Hours after welcoming her newborn son, Milian took to Instagram to share the sad news that he had passed away. “Yesterday I was blessed with the birth of my Richie Bear. Unfortunately, last night he took his place with the Lord and we said goodbye,” she captioned a black and white photo of what appears to be his handprint. “I so appreciate the prayers and support from everyone. He touched my heart and was perfect in so many ways.”
Danielle Milian, who found out while she was pregnant that her then-unborn son had omphalocele, has given birth to a baby boy named Richie, she announced via Twitter and Instagram.
The 29-year-old mom of three shared a photo of her newborn’s tiny foot on Wednesday, Aug. 26, writing, “Baby Richie has arrived! #prayersup for my #babyboy…He is already a fighter!”
As Milian told Us Weekly exclusively back in June, Richie was diagnosed with omphalocele — a life-threatening condition where organs form outside the body — during an ultrasound in March.
“The tech said, ‘I can’t see the sex…because I am seeing…intestines,'” the Christina Milian Turned Up star recalled, explaining that her son’s stomach, gallbladder, spleen, and liver could be seen outside his torso. “I was told there’s almost a 53 percent chance of mortality.”
Doctors advised Milian and her husband, Richard Dickerson, to terminate the pregnancy — but they decided to give their baby boy a chance at life.
“I said to [Richard], ‘Could you live with this?’ Because I know can. I know I could be in a hospital every day,” she told Us. “As a mother, I will do whatever it takes for my child…No matter how long he has in this world, I could not imagine taking his chance away.”
Initially, she admitted, she wondered whether her son’s condition was because of something she’d done. But doctors assured her that it was out of her control. Milian has also sought comfort from other parents who’ve been in the same situation.
“These support groups have been really important for me,” she told Us. “They have opened up my eyes [to realize] there is survival and that these children can thrive. I recently met a woman who’s in her fifties who has survived this and doing well. That lets me know I’ve made the right decision.”
