15 of the Most Controversial Things Celebs Have Said About Childbirth

Leave it to Chrissy Teigen to keep it real and really graphic when it comes to childbirth. In response to former President Donald Trump complaining about the mild discomfort of a COVID-19 test, she fired back in a tweet by saying, "My vagina was ripped to my a–hole giving birth to Luna," before giving some more gory details about her recovery process. No shade to Chrissy for being honest about the physical toll of childbirth, but there are probably some who found it controversial to weaponize birth details to tell the president to shut up.

Part of the whole spectrum of childbirth experiences sometimes sadly includes miscarriages. Actress Alyssa Milano recently raised eyebrows when she shared on a podcast that she thought her miscarriage was some sort of punishment "basically, for abortions in my 20s." The idea that there is karmic retribution for undergoing a safe and legal medical procedure definitely didn't make some pro-choice advocates or mothers who have experienced pregnancy loss happy.

In an interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Megan Fox shared that the pressure on actresses to look good is so intense that she started thinking about how to lose the baby weight while she was in the middle of delivering her child. As she explained, she didn't "want to lose opportunities" as a result of becoming a mom.

In an interview with Gotham, Kate Winslet described herself as "a failure" and "so completely traumatized by the fact that I hadn't given birth" because she'd delivered by C-section and not "a natural birth." The idea that a C-section somehow doesn't count as giving birth is, of course, both wrong and offensive to many women who gave birth that way.

It's always controversial when people promote the idea that if a mom does everything right, she'll have the childbirth experience she wants to have. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case, and for those who have had a more challenging birth or a birth with complications, it can feel easy to blame themselves. That's why reading things like Jessica Alba's take that "you just allow it to do what it's meant to do, and if you stay calm and open, then you'll have an easier time with birthing" can feel so triggering.

It always raises some eyebrows when women admit that they chose to schedule a C-section, especially when they do so on the early side (37 weeks, in this case) and because they "didn't want any vaginal tearing," as Christina Aguilera revealed to People in 2008. The medical community has even received pushback for accommodating such requests from their pregnant patients.

Clueless actress Alicia Silverstone — who's now starring in Netflix's The Baby-Sitters Club — is no stranger to saying controversial things about bodies, babies, and childbirth, including revealing that she ingested her placenta and that she thought giving birth was "almost sexy." Childbirth is a lot of things, but sexy? That's a bit out there for a lot of folks.

This is probably not a list that anyone would want to be on twice, but here’s Alyssa Milano again. She recently shared that giving birth was "very reminiscent of being sexually assaulted" because she didn't really "enjoy the fact that lots of people had access" to her vagina. There's a lot to unpack there.

Mariah Carey has never tried to pretend that she isn't a diva, but it was still a bit shocking to hear that she arranged for her own music to be playing while she gave birth to her twins. Her ex Nick Cannon shared that Mariah "wanted to make sure that when the babies came out, that they came out not only to a Mariah Carey song, but a live performance from Mariah Carey — her Madison Square performance of "Fantasy" – so they came out to a round of applause." Okay, Mariah, we get it, you're talented!

Mayim Bialik is pretty well-known for being more on the crunchy side when it comes to parenting styles, and it's no surprise to people who follow her that she chose to do a homebirth for her second child. What is surprising, and a little controversial, is that she described having her older child watch the birth "from his high chair while he was eating granola." This struck some people as an awfully graphic — and potentially traumatic — thing for a little guy to watch.

The Scientology practice of silent birth (wherein the birthing mother and everyone attending the birth is not supposed to talk at all) has long been controversial, but few famous Scientologists have really spoken about their experiences with it. One who did was the late actress Kelly Preston, who said that the birth practice is responsible for her kids being "amazing — just very calm, very peaceful, happy," which must mean that moms who had noisy births are responsible for their kids not being perfect? Yikes!

Childbirth can be a hard and messy business, that's for sure. And while some folks may worry that depictions of childbirth in films and TV aren't realistic enough, few would probably use the words that British actress Tilda Swinton did. According to her, childbirth is "a truly, truly murderous business. Giving birth is a violent thing to go through." It kind of seems like birth should be the opposite of murder, ideally, right?

Anyone who even casually follows pop culture knows that Kim Kardashian had some major struggles with pregnancy and childbirth in terms of both her health and the amount of body-shaming she got. That being said, it was still controversial to hear her describe elements of her birthing experiences as "so disgusting" and that her doctor "had to stick his whole arm" inside of her to remove bits of her placenta. Some folks call that TMI and some call it keeping it real!

We all know that Jennifer Lopez is famous in part because of her body and that bodies can change a lot with pregnancy and childbirth, but it is still cringy to hear how hard people can be on themselves following childbirth. In 2010, Jennifer told Us Weekly that she remembered her "flabby belly hanging out right after I gave birth" and that she looks back on pictures from that time and is "like, 'Oh, God, I was fat.'" Body-shaming is never cool, even when someone is body-shaming their very famous self.

Ricki Lake has been no stranger to controversy when it comes to childbirth. She's a vocal advocate for midwifery and home births, and while some found her documentary, The Business of Being Born, to be a really insightful look at choices for childbirth, others found it had moments of mommy shaming for women who choose a medicated hospital option. The fact that Ricki said she gave her second child "a gift … something for him that will affect him no matter who he is" by having him unmedicated at home doesn't help the perception that she's a shamer when it comes to birthing parents who go a more traditional route.

Also, there is no evidence that the choice to have an epidural or not will make any kind of lasting impact on a child, so maybe the real gift is just having a healthy mom and baby who made it through delivery, however it happened?