Jolie’s baby delivered by Cesarean

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The African-born daughter of
Hollywood couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt was delivered by
Cesarean section in a weekend surgery and birth that “went
flawlessly,” Jolie’s doctor said on Tuesday.

Details of the birth, which occurred on Saturday at the
Cottage Medi-Clinic Hospital in the Namibian town of
Swakopmund, were first disclosed in a statement the couple
furnished exclusively to People magazine.

Pitt’s publicist, Cindy Guagenti, later confirmed the
magazine’s report.

The infant, named Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, weighed 7
pounds (3.18 kg) at birth and was described as healthy, though
a surgical delivery was necessary because the baby was in a
potentially risky feet-first breech position in the womb.

“Angelina underwent a scheduled Cesarean due to breech
presentation,” said Dr. Jason Rothbart, the couple’s Los
Angeles-based obstetrician, who oversaw the delivery.

“Brad was with Angelina in the operating room the entire
time and cut the umbilical cord of his daughter. The surgery
and birth went flawlessly,” he said.

Rothbart added that the doctors, nurses and other staff who
assisted him were “amazing,” and he called the delivery “a team
effort.”

“We would like to deeply thank the staff of the Cottage
Medi-Clinic Hospital for all their kindness and commitment in
assuring the successful birth of our daughter,” Jolie, 30, and
Pitt, 42, said in a joint statement.

The infant Shiloh joins their two adopted children,
Cambodian-born son Maddox, 4, and daughter, Zahara, an
Ethiopian native who is about 15 months old, in a blended
celebrity clan recently labeled “the World’s Most Beautiful
Family” by People magazine.

But so far, no pictures of the family’s latest addition
have emerged. Photographers from all over the world have
flocked to the southern African nation in hopes of capturing
first images of the newborn that are expected to be worth
millions of dollars.

Jolie, who won an Oscar for her role in the 1999 movie
“Girl, Interrupted,” and serves as a goodwill ambassador for UN
High Commissioner for Refugees, took a shine to Namibia during
production on the 2003 film “Beyond Borders.”

Jolie and Pitt became acquainted in 2004 while working
together on the film “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” a dark comedy in
which they co-starred as a couple of assassins whose marriage
gets rocky when they’re assigned to kill each other.

Rumors of an affair between the twice-divorced Jolie and
Pitt heated up after the actor and his ex-wife, former
“Friends” star Jennifer Aniston, split up in January 2005.

While their relationship quickly became one of Hollywood’s
most talked-about open secrets, Pitt and Jolie only confirmed
their romance about five months ago, when they announced she
was pregnant with his child.

Reuters/VNU