Parenthood certainly has its perks. Gigi Hadid opened up about becoming a mother in the March 2021 issue of Vogue — and it’s no surprise she is already so wise about mom life just four months after giving birth to daughter Khai, whom she shares with boyfriend Zayn Malik.
The 25-year-old made sure to note that the process of birthing a child requires a wild strength. “I think they all knew that I have that animal in me,” she told the outlet, referring to her mom Yolanda Hadid, her sister Bella Hadid and the former One Direction member, 28. “When you see someone do that, you look at them a bit differently. I probably looked crazy, actually. I was an animal woman.”
She added, “What I really wanted from my experience was to feel like, OK, this is a natural thing that women are meant to do.”
As a result, the supermodel and her man decided to go as natural as possible for the delivery. They ended up opting for a home birth after watching the 2008 documentary The Business of Being Born. “We both looked at each other and were like, I think that’s the call,” Gigi revealed.
However, it took a lot of preparation to make sure she could handle the limitations of a home birth, such as not having access to the medications women can be given during labor to ease the process. “I had to dig deep,” she admitted. “I knew it was going to be the craziest pain in my life, but you have to surrender to it and be like, ‘This is what it is.’ I loved that.”
During her 14-hour labor, her mother and midwife supported her through painful contractions. “There definitely was a point where I was like, I wonder what it would be like with an epidural, how it would be different,” Gigi noted. “My midwife looked at me and was like, ‘You’re doing it. No one can help you. You’re past the point of the epidural anyway, so you’d be pushing exactly the same way in a hospital bed.’”
Ultimately, her first child’s birth is a memory she — and all of her loved ones who were present — will cherish, but she’s OK with waiting to do round two. “I know my mom and Zayn and Bella were proud of me, but at certain points I saw each of them in terror,” the A-lister added. “Afterward, Z and I looked at each other and were like, we can have some time before we do that again.”
Scroll through the gallery below to read Gigi’s best quotes on motherhood so far!