Shay Mitchell Gives Birth to Her First Child — See the First Photo of Her Baby Girl!
No lie — Shay Mitchell is a new mom!
On Sunday, the former Pretty Little Liars star, 32, announced she and boyfriend Matte Babel welcomed their first child.
“Never letting go,” Mitchell captioned a photo of herself holding her child’s hand.
The couple’s baby girl is the first child for Mitchell and Babel, who met through mutual friends and have been linked since January 2017.
Mitchell announced her pregnancy over Instagram and YouTube in late June, joking in the caption of a topless maternity snapshot, “Does this mean I’m allowed to drive in the carpool lane at all times now?”
“There is something in the oven and it’s not my pizza!!! WOW … It’s kind of surreal processing the fact that another human is growing inside of you,” she wrote in the description for her two-minute announcement video.
A post shared by Shay Mitchell (@shaymitchell) on Oct 20, 2019 at 7:05pm PDT
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Babel, a Canadian TV star, praised his girlfriend in an Instagram post after her announcement, writing alongside a photo of her showing off her baby bump, “The strength, vulnerability and grace you’ve had during this pregnancy has left me in awe, you’re going to be an incredible mom. We’re lucky to have you, love you.”
The couple learned the sex of their little one in an extremely unconventional way: by watching Pink and Blue Power Rangers duke it out, until the Pink Ranger emerged victorious.
The birth comes after Mitchell revealed in January that she’d had a miscarriage in 2018. In an Instagram story recapping her year, the You star wrote, “Although it was an amazing year, it didn’t come without some hardships,” before sharing a photo of an ultrasound with a broken-heart emoji.
She opened up further about the heartbreaking experience in July, saying in the premiere episode of her YouTube pregnancy series Almost Ready that she was “completely blindsided” by the miscarriage at 14 weeks gestation.
“Of course I’m super happy, but I still feel for the one that I lost,” the then-mom-to-be continued, expressing that even through her sadness, she was thankful miscarriage has happened only once for her.
“I know other women and other friends of mine who’ve gone through a way harder journey,” Mitchell shared. “It’s just really tough because you feel broken, as a woman, and that’s not a great feeling.”
RELATED VIDEO: Pregnant Shay Mitchell Reveals Due Date … and It’s Closer Than We Thought!
In the third episode of her YouTube series, posted on Sept. 4, Mitchell and her man were at odds over whether to leverage the help of an epidural during the actress’s delivery.
“Am I partial to no epidural? Yes,” replied Babel after Mitchell expressed that she would like to use one. “Why? Because I’m a hypochondriac. I’m afraid of drugs. My mom didn’t use an epidural … I meet women all the time who didn’t choose to use epidurals.”
After joking “Well listen, next time, you can do this,” to her boyfriend, Mitchell shared on her Instagram Story that she’d been reading comments on the video when one user’s idea about giving Babel a “birth simulator” caught her attention. “Birth simulator, yes, okay, where can I find this? Please let me know,” she asked.
Not only did the star want the item, but she then asked her followers where she might be able to find “the MOST INTENSE” version to have Babel try by posting a Q&A sticker on her Story.
Her sex reveal wasn’t the only unique baby-related event Mitchell attended during her pregnancy. Ahead of her daughter’s birth, she was the guest of honor at a baby shower where all the guests wore pink dresses — and took a trip to see the Magic Men Live! strip show in Hollywood, California.
“Oh my God. I’m going into labor!” Mitchell joked in the video on her YouTube channel as she fanned herself.
On Sept. 10, the model, entrepreneur and Dollface actress told PEOPLE that she wasn’t planning to take an extended leave of absence from her career when her daughter arrived.
“My entire team knows that there’s no maternity leave for me,” she said. “I do a lot of my work on my phone and I have another company that I run. I love what I do, so for me it doesn’t feel like work.”
