Wife of Texas Coach Steve Sarkisian, 39, Details ‘Emergency’ Childbirth

Loreal Sarkisian, the wife of University of Texas head football coach Steve Sarkisian, reflected on the difficult journey to welcoming the couple’s son, Amays, earlier this year.

“I turned 30, I turned 35, and still no kids,” Loreal, 39, said in a video posted via YouTube on Wednesday, August 27. “One day I got to a point where I was like, ‘Hey, if by the time I turn 40 I don’t have any kids, I’ll just be the best auntie ever.’ Because at that time, being an aunt was one of my favorite jobs.”

Loreal continued, “I was kind of settled into the idea that motherhood just wasn’t in the cards for me, not for any reason other than that’s just how the Lord saw fit for me to live.”

However, that all changed in the fall of 2024.

“When I found out I was pregnant, I was really excited but also like, ‘What the heck is happening?’” Loreal said. “I started getting those pregnancy symptoms that happen in the first trimester. That was not fun for me. Eventually, you come out of the first trimester and I felt better. Because I had been craving the whole, ‘When do you just walk around pregnant and it’s great?’”

Shortly after her first trimester, Loreal learned that her pregnancy “was going to look completely different for me.”

At what was supposed to be a “normal” checkup with her doctor, Loreal was told that swift action needed to be taken. 

“I learned of a few complications that were, at that point, putting me on bedrest immediately,” Loreal recalled.

Being on bedrest made Loreal feel like she had been “robbed” of certain aspects of her pregnancy. “But at the same time, if it was going to protect me and my son, then that’s absolutely what I was going to do,” she said. 

“Once admitted into the hospital, it became even more real,” Loreal explained. “I was OK and, not to mention, I needed to [be] for the baby’s sake. At that point, he could feel everything I feel. I just needed him to stay in as long as possible. That was the name of the game at that point. Me being admitted was, ‘Let’s keep him in and give him the best chance at survival should he come early.’”

Loreal’s water broke after she was admitted to the hospital, which prompted an “emergency” after her unborn son’s heart rate dropped “and it would not go back up.”

She was rushed into the operating room and put under anesthesia as doctors delivered her baby while she was asleep. 

Loreal awoke to a healthy baby boy, but admitted a part of her felt upset that she wasn’t able to actually experience the natural process of childbirth. 

“I was torn between being grateful and happy that he was alive and well and so are you, but then also again like, ‘God dog, I didn’t get another moment of this beautiful journey as a lot of women describe it,’” Loreal said. “There was a lot of that. Being grateful and thankful, and then like, ‘Oh my god, this really sucks.’ I don’t want to complain, but my reality was I was dealing with both sides of things.”

Loreal expressed hope that by sharing her story, she will inspire other mothers to more openly discuss the more difficult parts of pregnancy and motherhood. 

“No one really talked about the sucky side of pregnancy and I think that was also what was not helpful for me in pregnancy,” she said. “Like, ‘Oh, you’re pregnant! You’re glowing! Everything’s great! You look beautiful!’ Actually it’s like. I’m actually really miserable.”

Loreal and Steve — who got married in June 2020 — announced the arrival of Amays on April 4. 

“Outside of my salvation, the next greatest gift the Lord has given me in a child,” Loreal said. “A son who I am so obsessed with. I love him dearly. One of the purest loves I have ever had.”