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I cannot believe that the late Steve Irwin’s daughter, Bindi, is 25-years-old with a 2-year-old daughter. It makes me feel so old! Bindi grew up to be an absolutely lovely human being. She’s still working with her family to promote conservation. Lately, Bindi also been very open about her longtime struggle with endometriosis. After 10 years of excruciating symptoms, Bindi finally had surgery to take out 37 “very deep and difficult to remove” lesions. In March 2021, Bindi gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Grace Warrior. Because of the struggles she faced to conceive Grace, Bindi is very vocal about how people treat women who are in their prime years of fertility.
She’s so grateful for motherhood: “I am so glad that our daughter chose us to be her parents, and I think that every single day,” says Irwin. “It is such a gift to be a parent, because you are the one who is helping this wonderful little person find what they want to do with their lives. [You get] to try to do your best every day, to love them and support them and just be there — unconditionally, no matter what — to help them on the journey.”
She hopes other women talk about their struggles: Irwin’s dedication to embracing the present and practicing gratitude is no surprise given her longtime battle with endometriosis, which, as she’s previously shared, caused her to suffer from an “insurmountable fatigue, pain and nausea.” Her experience, which she opened up about on an Instagram Live this past spring, has also empowered her to encourage other women to talk about their own struggles.
Stop hiding your pain:; “It’s high time that we all talk about this and say, ‘Hey, if you are having excruciating periods, that’s not normal, and you need help, you should be allowed to receive medical treatments,’” says Irwin. “Women [should] stop having to feel like they have to hide their pain. I did it for 10 years. I tried my absolute best to hide the fact that every day I was in excruciating pain. And why? Why do we feel that we need to do that? You’re made to feel like it’s all in your head, and it’s a nonexistent problem or a woman’s problem. And that’s wrong. You should never be made to feel like you have to hide how you’re feeling, ever.”
Stop asking women about their reproductive plans: After everything Irwin has been through with endometriosis, the TV star is also passionately speaking out against prying or judgment when it comes to family planning. “Society just puts so much pressure on women and families, asking [questions like] ‘When are you going to have children?’ and if you have one child, ‘When is the next child?’” she points out. “These questions can be hurtful, because you don’t know what’s happening behind closed doors. You don’t know the heartbreak that someone has gone through. We have to be very careful and very kind when we’re talking about people’s decisions with their family. No one should ever make you feel bad about how you live your life with your family and the decisions that you have made or have had to make with family planning.”
She accepts her journey: As for Irwin’s path, she notes that her family of three may be complete — “and that’s OK.” “Chances are we’ll probably have one child, and that’s our journey,” says the proud mom. “That’s what life had planned for us. We feel very, very lucky to have our daughter. She feels like a little miracle every day. Our sun rises and sets with her. She is everything and more than we could ever want. We are so grateful.”
Bindi comes across as being so wise beyond her years, particularly when acknowledging that her medical situation may only allow her to have one child and she’s at peace with that. I am in my late 30s and over the past 15 years, I’ve witnessed so many friends struggle with their fertility for various reasons. In a country that has a very vocal minority screaming louder than anyone else about the sanctity of life that begins at conception, it’s wild that those people do not place more value in helping women who want to become pregnant and successfully carry to term.
I’m so impressed by Bindi, though. She’s absolutely correct. Even without factoring in a couple’s reproductive circumstances, it’s no one’s business anyway. It’s always felt icky to me when someone wants to know someone else’s business that isn’t theirs. You know those sayings about how you never know what someone else is going through, so be kind? Yeah, Bindi just gave a masterclass reason on why that’s so important to adhere to. I hope she breaks through to a bigger audience with this message.
I am long past the period of childbearing, but when anyone used to ask why my husband and I didn’t have children I used to respond instead with a question asking how many people they’ve ever had sex with. Amazing how it shuts people the f@@k up.
I’m passing your response on to some of my friends 👍😂
OMG, that is excellent. It is always shocking to me how many people think this is any of their business.
That’s amazing. I would respond with “how much do you weigh?” since we were asking inappropriate personal questions.
😂
I struggled with fertility. It took me two years and some medical interventions to get pregnant. I kind of appreciated when people asked about if we were having kids because I felt empowered to talk about our struggles. SO MANY people are having issues. It’s heartbreaking and stressful, and I love that people talk about it. I’m a verbal processor, so I NEEDED to talk about it.
Like Bindi, I had to have extremely painful surgery to remove lesions from endometriosis before I could get pregnant. I remember waking up from surgery and being in such excruciating pain that I asked my husband why he hadn’t just let me die. Of course later when I was able to become pregnant I was so grateful, but the recovery from that surgery was pure hell.
We did 3 IUIs, medication 2 egg retrievals 2 embryo transfers, & immune suppression/hormones/blood thinners to get our twins. It was worth it, but took years and a lot of questions. I did not always handle it gracefully, but then again that’s a pretty graceless question. On the other side we had a surprise with their little sister and then people asked if she was IVF or if we had sex. And in this climate less and less people ever want to have kids.