Bachelor star Irena Srbinovska opens up about pregnancy condition: 'Isn't easy'

The Bachelor's Irena Gilbert (Srbinovska) has opened up about her pregnancy, saying she has deliberately not shared when her baby is due because of a condition her unborn baby was diagnosed with.

While she and her husband Locky Gilbert previously announced their baby was due in early 2024, Irena has now spoken with Red Nose Australia about her baby's diagnosis with Single Artery Umbilical Cord which affects 1 in 100 pregnancies.

"This is something I didn’t think I was going to share but I have had a lot of questions about when my baby is due and I have deliberately not shared that for a reason," Irena wrote on Instagram.

"So early in the pregnancy, our baby was diagnosed with a Single Artery Umbilical Cord which is more common than I thought. In fact, 1 in 100 pregnancies have a single artery cord. The main concern being that the baby is small to develop."

Irena then went on to say her baby and her bump are smaller than what is expected for how advanced her pregnancy is.

"Our baby and my bump is smaller than what is expected for how far along I am and I didn’t want to be compared to other women around the same gestation as me.

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"Being pregnant isn’t easy, we compare our bump, our pregnancy, our baby and our experience to those around us. I just wanted to put it out there that it’s OK if your experience is different to those of your friends, colleagues, relatives, people in media or whoever. It’s your experience and it’s special…it’s a miracle.

"Thank you to everyone who has shared their story with me, I have read them all and find so much strength from them."

Irena and Locky's journey to parenthood

Locky and Irena announced they were expecting their first child last year, after they married in March 2023, three years after they met on The Bachelor.

"2023 has been a year of surprises, and now Locky and I are thrilled to share the biggest surprise of our lives—anticipating a new member in our family," they captioned the post.

The couple have been candid in the past about their fertility journey, sharing in 2021 that Irena suffered from a miscarriage not long after they got together.

Irena shared in July 2023 that the couple experienced another miscarriage, calling it 'heartbreaking.'

“We’ve been trying to get pregnant and trying to start our family and we were absolutely over the moon when we found out we were pregnant last month,” she told 7Life.

“Unfortunately, a week later we suffered a miscarriage, and. . . it was emotional, hard and obviously heartbreaking."

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