Dia Mirza recalls traumatic pregnancy and son's ICU battle: ‘He weighed just 810 grams, had life-saving surgery at 36 hours old’

Dia Mirza has opened up about the traumatic experience of giving birth to her son, Avyaan Azaad Rekhi, who was born prematurely in 2021. In a recent interview with Official People of India, Dia revealed the emotional and medical challenges she faced during her high-risk pregnancy, and how both she and her baby’s lives were hanging by a thread at one point.‘My body was going into sepsis… it was quite scary’The Nadaaniyan actor, who embraced motherhood at the age of 39, said she had always dreamed of becoming a mother, but things unfolded much later than expected. She conceived in what she described as a “crazy situation” and developed severe complications during the sixth month of her pregnancy. “I developed an acute bacterial infection, which could have been a side effect of my appendix surgery during the fifth month,” Dia shared.

“By the end of my sixth month, we realised my placenta was haemorrhaging and my body was going into sepsis. If the baby wasn’t delivered, neither of us could be saved. It was quite scary.”Dia recalled being rushed to the hospital while lying in the backseat of her car. Her gynaecologist urged her to trust him, and in that moment, all she could think of was saving her child. Avyaan was born weighing only 810 grams and was immediately taken to the ICU.

Dia herself was on IV antibiotics while her newborn fought for life.The situation grew more alarming when doctors found the infection inside her was life-threatening. “Avyaan had to go through life-saving surgery 36 hours after he was born. My son had a hole in his intestine… they put a stoma on him — they basically pulled the intestine out of the body and it was an exposed stoma,” she revealed.‘I was allowed to visit him only twice a week'Despite being a new mother, Dia had limited access to her child.

She was only allowed to see him twice a week and couldn’t even hold him until he gained enough weight. "I brought him home for exactly 20 days, and no nurse was willing to touch him because it was a really terrifying visual. So I handled the dressing," she added. Once Avyaan crossed 3.5 kg, he underwent a second surgery to correct the stoma.

Dia married businessman Vaibhav Rekhi in 2021, the same year they welcomed Avyaan. She also has a stepdaughter, Samaira Rekhi, from Vaibhav’s previous marriage. Earlier, Dia was married to producer Sahil Sangha, but the couple separated in 2019.

On the work front, Dia was recently seen in Nadaaniyan, where she played the mother of Ibrahim Ali Khan. The film also starred Khushi Kapoor, Jugal Hansraj, Suniel Shetty, and Mahima Chaudhary.