Pregnancy and childbirth aren’t easy, but poor Barbie Hsu seems to have had it especially hard. Two years ago, the Taiwanese actress was sadly forced to abort her third child after doctors found that the foetus was not fully developed. That pregnancy had also taken a toll on her health, even sending her into an epileptic fit at one point.

As it turns out, Barbie had it much worse when she gave birth to her second child, son Wang Hsi-Lin, in 2016. Recently, the 43-year-old made an appearance on variety show After Becoming a Mother (literal translation), where she got candid about the terrifying and life-threatening experience that landed her in the ICU.

“As soon as I gave birth to my son, I stopped breathing, and I had to be sent to the Intensive Care Unit,” she revealed.

The cause of her condition could not be determined, and Barbie fell into what she described as a “coma”, although it sounds more like a semi-conscious state given the fact that she was able to recall one thought that kept running through her mind at that time, which was: “I want to see my daughter. I want my daughter.”

Fortunately, she was also able to communicate her wish to doctors as Barbie’s mum eventually came into the ward with her daughter Wang Hsi-Yueh, who was only two years old at that time.

At that moment, Barbie had trouble opening her eyes and everything around her was all a big blur, but as soon as she spotted — or sensed? — her daughter, her eyes immediately lit up. Is this the power of love?

“I believe it was Hsi-Yueh who pulled me away from death’s door,” said Barbie. “I will forever remember that moment when she was looking into my eyes and listening to me tell her to take good care of her little brother 'cos at that time, I wasn’t sure if I would survive.”

Fortunately, Barbie did make it through that horrifying ordeal, and Hsi-Lin turned out to be healthy as well. She also managed to observe one silver lining amidst the incident. “In my mind, that was the day my daughter really started to be like a big sister.”

On a less morbid — albeit more icky — note, Barbie also touched on some of the changes that happened after she became a mother (since that’s the name of the show after all). For instance, she is no longer afraid of shit. Yes, poop.

According to Barbie, her family used to have many dogs and she would only dare to go home after her mother and sisters have cleaned up their poo. Her fear of excrement went away as soon as she had kids and had to change their diapers, during which she would end up covered in their, um, stuff.

There was even once when she — brace yourself — accidentally drank a little bit of her son’s pee, but she laughingly said urine from a baby “doesn’t have any special taste”. Oooh-kay then.

On the other hand, her husband, Chinese businessman Wang Xiaofei, still has trouble getting used to it. “He loves his children so much, but as soon as he smells poop, he will immediately pass the baby to someone else,” Barbie laughed. “He just can’t touch anything that has poop.”

Photos: Barbie Hsu/Weibo, Wang Xiaofei/Weibo, After Becoming a Mother/Weibo