Comedian and Fox News contributor Kat Timpf announced on Wednesday that she has given birth to her first child, a son, with husband Cameron Friscia and that just hours before giving birth, she was diagnosed with cancer.
“Last week, I welcomed my first child into the world. About fifteen hours before I went into labor, I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” she said on X in what she called “An Unconventional Birth Announcement.” “Now, before you worry, my doctor says it’s Stage 0 and is confident it almost certainly hasn’t spread. Or, as I’ve explained to the few people I’ve managed to tell about it so far: Don’t freak out. It’s just, like, a LITTLE bit of cancer.”
Timpf further explained that she was focused on giving birth to her baby after passing her due date by a week, but just hours before she would go into labor naturally, her doctors told her that she had cancer, dampening the joy of giving birth and changing how she had pictured spending her maternity leave and first months of parenting.
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“I sat and listened as they told me that the best course of action would likely be a double mastectomy as soon as possible. I asked all the questions I could, including if I could get a copy of my tumor ultrasound to put on the fridge next to the ultrasound of my baby. Finally, by the middle of the night, I was crawling around on the floor of my apartment in spontaneous labor, before heading to the hospital to meet my baby, whom I’d learn at the time of birth was a son.”
READ: Pregnant with cancer: ‘It was after I refused abortion that the doctor offered options’
She added, “Just minutes after my son was born, I was talking with the nurses about what a birth announcement in my situation might look like. Should I go with ‘Mom and baby are doing well, except maybe for mom’s cancer, and then maybe the baby after breastfeeding is stunted by her double mastectomy,’ and then shut off my phone for a week?”
Timpf noted that she is “lucky” to have found the cancer early and to have her son.
Women who are diagnosed with cancer during pregnancy are frequently told that their best or only option is to abort their children before they can be treated. However, as one woman, Maria La Loca, recently pointed out on X, “When I was diagnosed with cancer, the oncologist recommended that I have an abortion in order for me to get chemo. I said if I can’t have chemo while pregnant, I will wait until the baby is born. After that is when the doc came up with a whole new plan.”
Women deserve life-affirming options when diagnosed with breast cancer during pregnancy.
