Candiace Dillard Bassett shares the ‘paralyzing pain’ of her postpartum experience

Candiace Dillard Bassett is a mom! While the former “Real Housewives of Potomac” star’s labor and delivery experience went smoothly, she says postpartum was a different story. 

On Oct. 3, Dillard Bassett and her husband, Chris Bassett, welcomed their first child together, son Jett Maxwell Lee Bassett. However, just days after giving birth, the new mom recalls feeling paralyzed with pain. 

“I started having these horrifying lower abdominal pains,” she told People magazine. “It was so bad that I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do anything. And it just kept getting worse.”

Self-medicating with doses of ibuprofen and Tylenol every four hours, Dillard Bassett was able to make the pain somewhat manageable, though she admits she still did not feel “normal.” Her symptoms eventually escalated to include fevers up to 103.9°F.  The reality star began experiencing these symptoms while at the Sanu Postnatal Retreat, a physician-developed care program designed to support families in their postpartum recovery with hands-on masterclasses on caring for themselves and their babies, mental health resources, and more. 

“I was burning up! And it went on for a week. I just couldn’t break it,” Bassett explained, adding how the pain impacted her breastfeeding experience. “[Breastfeeding] was really excruciating at first, it was hurting so bad. And I know it often hurts in the beginning while you’re adjusting, but I was already dealing with so much pain, it made it so much worse. I wasn’t producing as much milk, I couldn’t pump. I was a mess.”

“I was really depressed because you have to understand: I couldn’t get up — literally, I was stuck in the bed, doubled over in pain,” she continued. “I couldn’t take care of my baby. If I didn’t have a husband, me and my child would be dead because I could not do anything. I was just like a literal vegetable, laying there like a bump on a log.”

Eventually going back to her doctor to address her symptoms, a computed axial tomography (CAT) scan revealed a blood clot in her left ovary. After being prescribed blood thinners to treat the blood clot, Dillard Bassett says she started feeling a difference physically and mentally within a week. 

“My depression really lifted and it’s been much better now,” she said. “I’m actually able to take care of Jett; to hold him and care for him and breastfeed and actually be a mom,” she said. 

This experience completely altered Dilliard Bassett’s perspective, helping her find a deeper appreciation for her husband and her mother. 

“I’ve always known he was a great dad, but this really cemented that for me,” she said of her husband, who has three kids — Owen, 22, Mateo, 14, and Naia, 10 — from two previous relationships. “Because Chris was doing almost everything. He was mostly getting up in the middle of the night. He was holding Jett, watching him. So I’m so grateful I didn’t have to go through this alone.”

“I’m completely obsessed [with motherhood]; it’s everything I wanted it to be and more,” she concluded. “[But] I definitely have a newfound respect for what it takes to not just to be a mom, but to be a good mom; be a present mom. My mom was really present. I always felt her in my life. So I hope to be as good of a mom to Jett as she was to me.”