This post deals with infant death, and may be triggering for some readers.
Amid the peak of a global pandemic, McCoy Casey Bosworth was born in the early hours of April 6.
For his mother, former Real Housewives of Orange County reality star Kara Keough Bosworth, the last nine months had been described by her obstetrician as an “uneventful and boring pregnancy”.
The birth, however, was anything but.
Keough Bosworth had initially intended to welcome her and husband Kyle Bosworth’s second child at a hospital, just as she had done with their first. But coronavirus had upended their plans, leading them to choose a home birth instead.
“I’m sitting there thinking, ‘What if I spiked a fever because that’s sometimes a normal part of giving birth and then I get my baby taken from me?'” she recalled in a recent interview with Good Morning America.
The 31-year-old decided to “take that burden off the healthcare system” and proceeded to plan for a home birth, accompanied by her doula.
At 38 weeks pregnant, the expecting mother went to her last obstetric appointment, with “no indication of what we were walking into”.
Just after midnight on April 6, Keogh Bosworth went into labour. “The midwife gets there, literally just as I am getting the urge to push.”
She goes on to explain they quickly realised she was experiencing shoulder dystocia – when the baby’s shoulders becomes stuck inside the mother’s pelvis.
“I immediately knew that it was shoulder dystocia and I got worried and from there, it was like an olympic effort,” Keogh Bosworth remembers.
When the baby was finally out, she remembers the emergency medical technicians (EMTS) – who had only just arrived – were “trying to get a heart rate, and I don’t think they were having any success finding that.”
Keogh Bosworth tearfully recounts discovering they had given birth to a baby boy, but then noticing his umbilical cord was white.
Watch: Kara Keough Bosworth explains her second child’s birth. Post continues below video.
They were rushed to hospital, and there, Kyle remembers seeing their newborn “go from like this ghost to pink, and he came back to fight, to see if he could live.”
McCoy was put on a ventilator in the neonatal intensive care unit. After 72 hours in the ICU, Kara and Kyle realised their baby would not survive.
The family had six days with McCoy before he tragically passed away.
“We got some milestones we didn’t think we’d get,” Keogh Bosworth reflects. “We got to change his diaper. I got to get peed on, which is a boy-mum thing I didn’t think I’d ever get. We got to hold him, we got to feel warmth in his body.”
She added that she was able to “sing to him and tell him all the things he’d done while he was in my belly and kind of get to know him,” before he passed.
Their first child, four-year-old Decker, was also able to meet her little brother, and was able to play ‘This Little Piggy’ on his fingers.
The family have donated their baby’s organs, saying they “want his life to mean as much to as many people as possible and to let all of the positive ripples of his life be there.”
On Instagram, Kara Keogh shared a touching tribute to her late son, one month after he was born.
“You would have been 1 month old today. Your baby acne would be gearing up. You would be getting the hang of pacifiers, sorting out your days and nights, and figuring out how to focus your eyes without them involuntarily crossing,” she wrote alongside a photo of her husband Kyle touching heads with McCoy.
“You’d be taking your first naps in the crib, and I’d be fussing about “the schedule.” I’d be realising that you, just like your sister, prefer Lefty and I’d be pumping Righty to try to bring ‘er up to speed.”
She continued: “Decker would want to be holding you all the time, but you’d prefer to be spending your day wrapped around my chest.
“We miss you like crazy, baby.”
The last month of Kara Keough Bosworth’s life has been marked by unimaginable loss, after she also lost her father, Matt Keough, less than four weeks after the death of her newborn baby.
“Daddy, please take care of my son,” she wrote in early May. “Teach him the circle changeup and how to find forever friends. You’re on grandpa duty in heaven now.”
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Feature Image: Good Morning America/ Kara Keough.
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