Bachelor’s Krystal Nielson Shares Details of Her Son’s ‘Highly Traumatic’ Birth
The Bachelor’s Krystal Nielson is sharing details about the “extremely traumatic” experience she faced while giving birth to her second child with husband Miles Bowles.
During the February 10 episode of iHeartRadio’s “Almost Famous” podcast, Nielson, 38, revealed that she chose to be induced in November 2025 after discovering that their son Rowan had an “umbilical vein varix.” Nielson had previously gone through a similar situation with her daughter Andara, now 4, but this delivery took a different turn.
“With Andara, I progressed very quickly. It took 21 hours from the start of induction to her birth, with an hour and 15 minutes of pushing,” Nielson shared. “I was already dilating at 36 weeks, so we thought he would arrive soon and quickly—since the second baby tends to come faster because the body knows what to do.”
She added, “So during this induction, I believe it had been about 40 hours total. I dilated only from one to three centimeters after starting with one upon arriving at the hospital.”
Nielson explained that she opted for a natural birth without an epidural. She mentioned that a balloon was causing her contractions every five minutes, but when a hospital staff member attempted to remove it, it got “stuck.”
“After that, I started to bleed heavily. Things went downhill because it remained stuck, and I was in excruciating pain,” Nielson explained, noting that an OB eventually came to deflate the balloon. “To make a long story short, they suggested giving me an epidural, breaking my water, and that helped move things along.”
Once she reached 10 centimeters, she learned there was a “shift change” for the nursing staff.
“I could feel Rowan dropping lower and lower. I thought he would arrive before the new nurses came on. But then he suddenly stopped. When the nurses arrived, I started pushing, thinking it would be just a few more pushes, but after not seeing his head, I realized I ended up pushing for over three hours,” Nielson said.
Nielson noted that she was disoriented, wearing a “gas mask” and feeling on the verge of passing out. A doctor eventually informed her that her son was “stuck in [her] pelvis.” She shared that she “blackout” while the doctor attempted to rotate him, a process that was “extremely painful.”
“When the doctor withdrew her hand, blood gushed out along with clots. They called it a Code Pink,” Nielson recalled as she was wheeled into the operating room. “We weren’t sure if her attempt to rotate him caused my uterus to rupture or if it had already ruptured, but I was losing energy fast. The operating room experience was horrifying—definitely the most traumatic event I’ve faced.”
Nielson described the distressing moment when she was “convulsing off the table” as the doctors began to operate.
“Because he was so low, someone had to go in through my vagina and push him higher since they couldn’t get him out. They had to cut horizontally into my left rectus abdominis because my muscles were too tight to pull him through. Eventually, he was vacuum-assist delivered through the C-section,” she explained.
Due to the emergency circumstances, Nielson revealed they were uncertain if her son would “make it” as his placenta had detached prematurely. He was taken to a separate hospital for tests for “any potential brain damage” and was started on treatments in the NICU.
“They put me under to repair my uterus. I was praying the whole time, ‘Please, God, save my uterus. Please, God, save my baby.’ Once he was out, my focus was on my uterus,” she recounted. “The surgeon explained that the rupture wasn’t just a clean cut; it was so severe it resembled roadkill. They could not reassemble it, and stitches wouldn’t hold.”
In the end, Nielson expressed her “extreme gratitude” that the doctors were able to save her uterus. When she regained consciousness, both she and her husband were “sobbing.” (The couple got married in 2023.)
After the surgery, doctors “strongly” advised Nielson against future pregnancies “due to the severity” of the rupture.
“Hearing that we wouldn’t be able to try again was difficult. We had planned to conceive again within a year of Rowan’s birth,” Nielson revealed. “I’ve recently begun giving away baby girl clothes I had held onto for another baby girl I hoped for. I’m uncertain what God’s plan is for us regarding a third child—yes or no, I simply don’t know.”
She continued, “The beauty of life is its uncertainty. I’m learning to surrender to whatever our next chapter holds. I’m letting go of all the baby items, wanting to keep my energy open, fluid, and moving. We’ll see what happens.”
