15 July, 2009
Mira Sorvino gave birth to her third child (Holden) after a dangerous pregnancy
Holden is the name of Oscar winning actress Mira Sorvino's new baby boy.
The 41-year-old actress welcomed 8lbs 12oz son Holden Paul Terry Backus - her third child with husband Christopher Backus - into the world on June 22 in Los Angeles, but has revealed her pregnancy was fraught with problems.
She said: "As soon as they placed him in my arms I knew it had all been worth it. He is my miracle baby. With everything that threatened this pregnancy and both of our lives, he came out of it completely unscathed - perfectly healthy, beautiful and wonderful!
"We are overjoyed to bring our beautiful healthy son home to his brother Johnny and sister Mattea. We are blessed to have a home filled with so much love."
Mira suffered from placenta previa - a medical condition where the placenta becomes attached to the uterine wall near or covering the cervix - and had to spend time in hospital before the birth.
She was put on total bed rest, but also suffered a difficult labor where she lost a lot of blood.
The 'Human Trafficking' actress explained to People magazine: "I developed a blood clot due to all the inactivity and had to be anti-coagulated for months to prevent a pulmonary embolism. Prior to this nine-week hospital stay, I had only ever spent one night away from Johnny and Mattea.
"The baby was very big and he came a couple of weeks early so it took longer than we thought. During the day we had some scary difficulties with the epidural as I achieved almost no progress with the labor and then at night the placenta created problems again. Although it was not blocking the baby's path as it had done for almost the entire pregnancy, it started causing me a substantial loss of blood. Just as we began begging for a Caesarean section, the situation turned around and the end of the birth was very easy."