Mandy Moore gave birth on her due date—but not according to plan

Mandy Moore is a mama! The actress just welcomed her son, Gus, right on his due date (a rarity!).

But while her delivery was right on schedule, the actress had to change her birth plan. And, like many mamas, she had to come to terms with some complicated emotions when she made that adjustment.

Moore opened up about this during a recent appearance on the Informed Pregnancy Podcast. The This is Us star, who welcomed her firstborn with husband Taylor Goldsmith, had hoped to give birth at home—but, when she discovered she was dealing with a pregnancy complication, she had to let go of that dream.

“My platelets have been dropping throughout pregnancy,” the new mama said. “It’s something I never thought about until I got, I’d say early to midway through my third trimester. They sort of started dropping pretty precipitously and fell below the threshold that would make it possible for me to do a home birth. Unfortunately, my plans have had to change.”

As we’ve previously reported, platelets are cells that help clot blood, and this count drops in about 7 to 10 percent of pregnancies, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Initially, Moore took the news that she’d be unable to deliver at home in stride. “Unfortunately my plans have had to change. I initially was like, ‘I got it, absolutely. I am malleable, I’m going to do whatever it takes for this baby,’ and that is absolutely how I still feel. But the grieving process about my plan not unfolding the way that I had hoped actually, I felt this sort of delayed reaction,” she explained. “It was a couple of weeks afterward that it really sort of sunk in.”

Moore also revealed that she’s felt a sort of jealousy towards other parents who are able to have those beautiful home births. At the time of the podcast’s recording, she planned to labor at home before heading to the hospital and delivering with a midwife.

We live in a world where many people describe the day they gave birth as the happiest of their lives, so it’s natural that we think a lot about this day—and maybe even romanticize it a bit. Wanting to plan that day in great detail is a thing many of us do—but birth plans don’t always go according to, well, plan. At the end of the day, though, any scenario that produces a healthy mom and healthy baby is a good one.

“Things didn’t unfold the way that I wanted, but I say, that is the ultimate lesson of life and parenthood and the next chapter that we’re about to venture into,” Moore said. “I’m really leaning into that and leaning into the idea of surrender and things are going to unfold exactly the way that they’re supposed to. And I trust that and I trust my body and I trust my team and I’m more or less just excited.”