YouTube star ended up in coma after giving birth to second child due to rare complication
Kate and Joey are already parents to son Moon, five, and welcomed baby number two - a daughter named Mars - during a home birth at their residence in Hawaii on May 22.
Their first child was born inside a hospital via C-section, but the influencer wanted the 'magical' experience of giving birth naturally and at home, she explained during an interview with People published on Friday.
'This is my second kid, my last pregnancy. Let me challenge myself and go for this,' Albrecht told the outlet.
Kate saw both a midwife and OB-GYN during her second pregnancy and after nearly 24 hours of labor - their baby girl was born.
Afterwards, the mom-of-two went to the hospital for a checkup and to get stitches after suffering a tear amid labor. Kate was told she was 'fine' by doctors - but two weeks later the star had a horrifying health scare that initially had gone undetected: eclampsia.
She began to suffer different symptoms at the beginning of her postpartum journey, including headaches and pain around her mid-back area.
'I was so tired and so sore. I felt like, "Wait, this is supposed to be easier. I'm supposed to recover from a natural childbirth easier than a surgery," but I was bedridden,' Kate recalled.
Her husband Joey - who also joined in on the interview - explained that she had been seeing an OB but was told '"This is the healing process."'
When she also saw doctors over her stitches, the media influencer opened up about the pain she was feeling but, '[They] just said, "Oh yeah, well, you went through natural childbirth. Oh, you're a migrainer. You have headaches."'
Kate had been at home one day with her newborn baby girl and a family friend when she decided to take a nap due to not feeling well.
The star remembered falling in the hallway and into a wall. Her friend helped her into bed and soon reached out to Joey - who was away with son Moon at a party.
He wasn't too far away and soon arrived home - and noted to the outlet a film crew was shooting a scene nearby on the same street.
Joey emotionally recalled entering their bedroom to find Kate 'unconscious' and 'blood coming out of her mouth.'
After not being able to wake her up, he called 911 and sent the friend outside to see if there was a medic on set of the film - and luckily there was.
The medic arrived to find Kate had begun to have a seizure and after being quickly updated on the situation, the medic speculated she had eclampsia.
According to Mayo Clinic, postpartum preeclampsia is a 'rare condition' that 'sometimes develops up to six weeks or later after childbirth.'
It also 'can cause seizures and other serious complications' if it is left untreated.
She was intubated upon arriving to the hospital and Joey explained, 'At that point, she was then in a medical coma.'
Following tests, Kate did not have any brain bleeds and was transferred to the ICU. Joey left the hospital late that night, but even at home, would call nearly every hour to get any updates.
The next day, she awoke and was able to breathe on her own. Her husband said, 'I was like, "You had eclampsia. Yeah, the babies are fine." You're like, "What's eclampsia? What's that?"'
A blood clot had also been found on one of her kidneys, which had caused the pain she had been experiencing in her back.
Last month on June 9, Kate was discharged from the hospital and was happy to return home to see her son and newborn daughter.
The couple explained that they felt like they had been 'prepared' for everything - and never thought she would suffer from the rare medical condition.
She had even done tests that check for preeclampsia during her pregnancy, but those had also turned out 'fine' at the time.
Kate admitted that the situation 'was literally my worst nightmare' but offered a positive update.
'My family is okay. They're thriving. My baby's thriving. She's fine, and I'm good and getting better every day. I'm trying to make this into a positive, trying to find the positive in this horrendous experience.'
Over on Instagram, she also gave a message to their fans and followers on Friday.
Along with sharing photos of herself with baby Mars, Kate penned: 'I know a lot of you have seen the People article and have been worried and sending your love and we are so thankful for you! We are OK!
'We just posted the entire raw and real birth video on our YouTube channel (link in bio). It's the most raw video we've ever made.'
She added, 'Birthing naturally was by far the hardest thing and I really didn't think I could pull it off, but I did!
'Mars, Moon and Dada @joeyzehr and I are happy, healthy and healing now! We are working on a second video to tell the rest of the story.'
The mom-of-two concluded with, 'We are so thankful for all of you. The Creative Weirdo family is literally the best community on the internet! ❤️❤️.'
Mr. Kate first began as a blog in 2009 and has since blown up to a successful YouTube channel which currently has 3.79 million followers.
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