Maya Vander Opens Up About Losing Her Son: 'I Just Wish I Could Protect Him'

Maya Vander is opening up after she made the heartbreaking announcement that she had a stillbirth at 38 weeks

Selling Sunset star Maya Vander, who documented her joyful pregnancy announcement to her coworkers on the hit Netflix show, made the heartbreaking announcement earlier this month that she had a stillbirth at 38 weeks pregnant. Now, she’s opening up about what happened, revealing even more heartbreaking circumstances surrounding the loss of her son.

“You just don’t think it’s going to happen to you,” she said in a new interview with USA Today.

Vander explained that after she announced her pregnancy on the show, which was revealed in Season 4 when it premiered last month, she had a normal pregnancy. She continued to work, traveling back and forth between Miami and LA, with all signs pointing to Mason, her son, being healthy and growing perfectly. At 34 weeks, she stopped traveling. A few weeks later, she started to feel Mason moving less.

“I was thinking maybe I’m just being paranoid, because I’m already nine months pregnant,” Vander said, adding that she wondered if there was “less room for the baby to move so that’s why.”

A few days later, Vander saw her gynecologist, who searched for Mason’s heartbeat. Agonizing seconds passed without any sound. Another ultrasound confirmed that Mason had died, and Vander needed to deliver him. She did so in a hospital with only a nurse and her gynecologist by her side — her husband couldn’t join her because he was positive for COVID at the time.

“Thankfully, they did let my husband come and say goodbye because they give you the option if you want to see the baby and hold the baby,” she said.

While they wait for the results of an autopsy to hopefully shed some light on why Mason died, Vander and her husband say they’re still in shock and mourning.

“A week ago, I was still pregnant and excited, two weeks away from my due date and now I’m literally planning a funeral,” she said. “I didn’t know my baby. I didn’t spend time with him yet. But it’s still a loss and it’s still something that my body experienced and it’s a negative outcome unfortunately. So it’s something that we have to just take one day at a time.”

Vander also opened up about the guilt she feels, wondering if she could have done anything that could have saved Mason’s life.

“Mason was a 7-pound, 4-ounce baby. He looked totally normal, fully developed. Looked like his brother when he was born, looked like my husband – same face features. And I wish I could just protect him.”