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'I couldn't breathe': Jessica Simpson says she was hospitalized during her third pregnancy

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Jessica Simpson is opening up about the health struggles she faced during her third pregnancy.

In a new interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, the 41-year-old recalled suffering from severe bronchitis while she was pregnant with her daughter, Birdie, in March 2019.

The "With You" singer said she experienced difficulty breathing during her 34th week of pregnancy. The illness put such stress on the baby that doctors opted to deliver Birdie by C-section.

“Her oxygen levels were dropping,” Simpson explained, noting that the extra pregnancy weight did not help. “I couldn’t breathe. I was 260 pounds. She was a very big baby. We were like, ‘Just take her out.’”

In Simpson's memoir, "Open Book," which was released in 2020, the star described her pregnancy with Birdie as one "from hell."

“When I wasn’t being hospitalized for bronchitis … I was breaking a toilet seat leaning back," she penned.

Simpson, who shares three children, Birdie, 2, Ace, 8, and Maxwell, 9, with her husband, Eric Johnson, has always been transparent about the struggles of pregnancy. Back in 2019, she spoke candidly about gaining more weight than she expected with each of her pregnancies.

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“When you’re pregnant, I gain a lot, I mean, a lot. I didn’t expect to gain as much with my third,” she told HSN. “I thought I’d learned my lesson, but apparently, that’s just the way God made me, very hungry and pregnant.”

Simpson revealed that after giving birth to three children, there were permanent changes to her body that she's come to accept.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get back to [my skinny jeans]. I save them and say, ‘One day,’” she continued. “But after having kids, I don’t think that your hips really ever go completely back. Your body changes!”

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