James Van Der Beek welcomes baby No. 6, a boy named Jeremiah - Today.com

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Tuesday, November 23, 2021

James Van Der Beek and his wife, Kimberly, have welcomed their sixth child, a boy.

“Humbled and overjoyed to announce the safe, happy arrival of Jeremiah Van Der Beek. (We’ve been calling him Remi, btw),” the “Dawson’s Creek” star began an Instagram post on Monday.

Remi joins Olivia, 11, Joshua, 9, Annabel, 6, Emilia, 4, and Gwendolyn, 3.

“After experiencing late-term #pregnancyloss twice in a row (both at 17+ weeks), we kept this one quiet. Truthfully, I was terrified when I found out,” Van Der Beek wrote.

Van Der Beek went on to reveal that Kimberly was diagnosed with an incompetent cervix. An incompetent cervix, also called cervical insufficiency or a weakened cervix, is when the cervix opens in the second trimester as the baby grows.

To prevent another loss, Kimberly’s doctor recommended a surgical cerclage, which is essentially a stitch in the cervix used to prevent premature birth. The stitch was removed when she was full-term.

Kimberly gave birth without pain medication at the family’s ranch in Austin, Texas.

“Each child brings their own energy, their own manifestation of consciousness, their own lessons. The ones we lost each gifted us with different pieces of the puzzle… leaving us that much more grateful for the ongoing master class we get to enjoy with this sweet, wise little one,” Van Der Beek wrote.

“(ps - To everyone in our community - both local and extended - who knew about our journey and honored our desire for privacy… thank you. May that respect and karma come back to y’all 1000-fold.)”

According to Dr. Ashley Roman, director of maternal fetal medicine at NYU Langone Health, an incompetent cervix is believed to be caused by weak cervical tissue.

“The problem with incompetent cervix is that many women have no symptoms or they have symptoms that overlap normal symptoms associated with pregnancy, such as an increase in vaginal discharge or pelvic pressure,” Roman previously told TODAY Parents. “The reason why it is often diagnosed too late is because cervical dilation is painless.”

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Rachel Paula Abrahamson is a TODAY.com contributor who writes for the parenting, health and shop verticals. She was previously a senior editor at Us Weekly. Her bylines have appeared in The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and elsewhere. Rachel lives in the Boston area with her husband and their two young daughters.

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