Rachel Weisz's son Henry comes first

New mom Rachel Weisz appears on the cover of California Style Magazine this month – but the interview to go with the photographs had to wait. Henry Chance’s health takes priority – causing Rachel to need to reschedule her interview, saying, "I’m sorry, but my baby had a hernia. He was born with it – what’s the fancy word for that? Congenital. He had to have an operation last week." Henry is now completely healthy.

According to iVillage, hernias are "defects in any wall of the body which allows what’s behind the wall to come through." The most common type of hernia in infants is one that we commonly know as an outie belly button. This occurs when, "muscles at the umbilicus do not quite come together allowing the sac which holds the intestines to poke through." These usually get smaller in size and close up on their own, leaving an outie. Occasionally some larger ones may need to be surgically corrected.

Henry is believed to have had an inguinal hernia, which is most common in baby boys and is corrected with surgery. Most babies that have the issue are born with it, and it occurs when, "the muscles and ligaments in the groin area do not come together completely, allowing the sac holding the intestines to poke through."

Sources: Celebrity Terrorist and iVillage Pregnancy and Parenting.

Have you dealt with hernias yourself or with your children?

Comments

I was born with a hernia, and had surgery to remove it at 3 months old.

- Patrice on September 28th, 2006

I was born with one… had surgery at about 4 months old. Still have the scar at 25 years old hehe…

- Emily G on September 28th, 2006

Yes, my daughter had an umbilical hernia. It was no big deal. I didn’t have to do anything special with it at all. It resolved on its own completely by the time she was 6 months old, so I didn’t have to worry about whether or not she would eventually have to have it surgically repaired.

- P Dawn on September 28th, 2006

I was born with a hernia, where my stomach was up by my heart. I had surgery for it at 4 months old and might be having another surgery soon (many years later). It’s very rare for babies to have the kind I did. Hope Henry has a speedy recovery!

- MB on September 28th, 2006

I was diagnosed with a hiatus hernia at the age of 16 and still live with it to this day because the doctor said it was not serious enough to need surgery. But on those nights where I’m sleeping lying up I tend to disagree!

- Lorus on September 28th, 2006

My 3 year old has an inguinal hernia that has to be repaired in October. I’m very nervous about it, although it is supposed to be fairly common.

- AAA on September 28th, 2006

I was born with an umbilical hernia and it resolved on it’s own. I also didn’t know about it until my mom told me when I was a teen, LOL =)

- Izzie25 on September 28th, 2006

I was born with a hernia but it disappeared by itself when I was nearly 6 years old. It was more than 11 years ago and it hasn’t come back. I was born with cleft lip and palate too, but unfortunately is one of those things that could disappear by themselves. At least one

- Ana on September 28th, 2006

My daughter is 3 weeks old and when she was born she had a diaphragmatic hernia. Her bowels were in her chest, crowding her left lung. She had surgery at 3 days old as she couldn’t breathe on her own. Now she’s home and doing just fine. Her hernia is a very rare case in babies. Boy, we were ever scared considering none of my ultrasounds picked it up.

- Holly on September 28th, 2006

my DD’s umbilical hernia appeared when she was about 2 weeks old. our ped told us that it would resolve itself, but that we’d watch it. it continued to grow bigger and bigger and by her 2 month appt she referred us to a ped surgeon. he said that the opening was large enough that it wouldn’t close on it’s own and we needed to do surgery. it was really stretching out her skin and was about the width of her arm! we did surgery when she was 10 weeks old. it was 20 minutes, tops! we stayed overnight in the hospital for observation and went home the next morning (standard procedure for babies who go under). she slept most of that day, was slightly crabby for a day or two and then was fine! her little belly button looks great!

- cori w on September 28th, 2006

I noticed my son’s inguinal hernia when he was a few weeks old and he had surgery at 2 months. It was outpatient surgery and he went home about 2-3 hours after the procedure. I gave him Tylenol for one day and then nothing after that and he was completely fine. His surgeon said most kids breeze through the surgery — but I was a nervous wreck!

- Jill on September 28th, 2006

I have one and was operated on when I was almost 2 years old. It developed when I was a baby. My father likes to tell me the story about my operation.how when I was a baby it was just alittle incision. Of course I have this long ugly scar now, because it was in the late 60′s when it happened and I grew up. So if I would wear a skimpy bikini you can see it and it seems to poke over my bikini line. I hate the thing, cause it’s so ugly. I don’t know which hernia I had, but according to my father it was life threatening back then.

- nanny on September 29th, 2006

best yopta

- kert on September 29th, 2006

Both my brother and I were born with Epigastric Hernias!

And we both have little scars, his is higher up than mine.

- Stacey on September 29th, 2006

my daughter was 3 months premature (1 pound, 10 ounces at birth) and had a hernia (don’t remember the fancy word for it, it was 17 years ago!) that had part of her internal organs, including her ovary, fall too low (her genitals were enlarged on one side and that’s how I was able to notice it). The neonatologist in charge didn’t believe me something was wrong but I insisted on seeing a surgeon. He came in, opened her diaper and said “wow, look at this hernia! when can we schedule the surgery?”. Apparently, it was quite urgent. She had the surgery at less than 5 lbs, when she was still on extra oxygen and it took her a long time to wake up. She’s 17 now but still has scars on both sides. Hernias can be dangerous, it all depends where they form. BTW, it was at Dartmouth Medical Center in Hanover, NH. The prematurity was caused by a midwife in training who pierced my amniotic sac when doing a “routine” pap smear (in 6th month!)– I had a placenta abruption and nearly died in the process, with my doctor leaving parts of the placenta inside after birth–fortunately, my body expelled it a week later, when I was at home. We never sued the hospital. I mention it here since I’m still angry about it. Thank God our daughter is fine.

- millie on September 29th, 2006

I have an umbilical hernia and I hate it… I’m so self-consious and my parent don’t think it nessesary to have an oppetation but I really want one …

- Rachel on December 8th, 2008