Former Olympic Gymnast Shawn Johnson Shares Positive News After Pregnancy Complications
Shawn Johnson is a 27-year-old former Olympic gymnast, and was a member of the 2007 United States gymnastics team that would go on to secure a gold medal. Today, Johnson is after a very different but still very serious goal — safely delivering a child. Johnson and her husband, Andrew East, are currently pregnant with their first child together. The couple has been trying to have a child for a long time now, and endured a miscarriage about a year and a half ago. Johnson’s current pregnancy hasn’t necessarily been smooth sailing, but things are starting to look up, according to Today.
Johnson and East share a joint YouTube channel together called The East Family. They post videos ranging from house tours to question and answer sessions. They publicly announced that they were expecting a baby back in April through a sweet and very emotional YouTube video, and were over the moon at the thought of expanding their little family. Just this past week, Johnson announced to her fans that she was experiencing some unexpected complications with her pregnancy. She had gone to the doctor for her 20 week ultrasound appointment and ended up finding out that her baby’s kidneys were undeveloped, and were not yet working properly. This meant the baby could potentially be born with life-threatening complications.
Luckily, when Johnson and East went to a recent followup appointment, they got some good news that helped put their minds at rest. The infant’s kidneys had reached a regular size, and the child appeared to be growing as normal. In addition, Johnson underwent genetic testing to help predict whether or not the baby would be born with any genetic complications. The couple was happy to find out that the test came back negative, which means that the child is genetically healthy.
Shawn Johnson East Gives Update on Pregnancy Complications: 'Huge Weight Lifted Off Our Hearts' https://t.co/8XhZsGrDIW
— People (@people) July 20, 2019
In a recent YouTube video, East explained their reaction to this exciting news.
“We were celebrating because there was so much fear that we felt like was relieved when we found out that the baby didn’t have the predicted complications. Not that we wouldn’t have been excited had they had complications to have a baby, but it definitely changes things. There’s the risk of stillbirth and the baby not making it to term and the baby not getting enough nutrients or having too much toxins in their body. Kidneys are a normal size, they said the baby is growing great. Doc said everything looks pretty good.”
