Penn Badgley & Domino Kirke's Placenta Painting Birth Announcement is Epic

Sabrina Rojas Weiss

September 21, 2020 at 9:43 AM·3 min read

Celebrities have gotten increasingly creative in the ways they announce (or don’t announce) the births of their children, but Domino Kirke and Penn Badgley just gave us a new one. More than a month after giving birth to a baby boy, Kirke shared a representation of “his heart-shaped home” on Instagram.

And in case you didn’t interpret what that means, Kirke, a singer and doula, made a placenta painting that coincidentally looks just like a heart on a string. It appears that her baby boy with husband Badgley was born 40 days ago.

For those of you who aren’t already familiar with placenta art prints, we highly recommend clicking through on the hashtag from Kirke’s Instagram. Maybe it seems like a natural thing to those who are already inclined to embrace this organ because of the life it gives to our babies. It’s sometimes something doulas prepare with food coloring before turning the placenta into a shake or capsule for a new mother.

View this post on Instagram

His heart shaped home ❣️ #40dayspostpartum #placentaart
A post shared by Domino Kirke-Badgley (@domino_kirke) on Sep 20, 2020 at 2:35pm PDT

Others of us who are not into seeing our internal organs when they’re outside our bodies may actually become converts to this particular form of birth mementos. Their impressions on paper form hearts, trees, and beautiful abstract shapes, all celebrating the birth of a new human being.

If you’re really curious about this process and considering making your own, you can watch this video.

We can only guess that making art with her placenta was a special process for Kirke. This is her second son, and the You star’s first. (She has a 12-year-old son, Cassius Riley.) When Kirke announced her pregnancy in February, she said it was after two previous miscarriages.

“Pregnancy after loss is a whole other thing,” she wrote on Instagram. “After two miscarriages in a row we were ready to call it. I stopped trusting my body and started to accept the fact that I was done. As a birth attendant, I’ve seen and heard it all. It takes everything I’ve got to detach lovingly from the losses I’ve been present for and be in my own experience. When I was pregnant at 25, I knew nothing. I had no community. I dove in blissfully unaware about birth and its mysteries. Now, with 10 years worth of experience to pull from, I treasure my birth community and the knowledge I have. You’re already teaching us how to stay in the day in a way we’ve never had to, little one.”

Congratulations to the Kirke-Badgley family!

With parents named Domino and Penn, and a big brother Cassius, we expect great things of this new little boy’s name. Will he join these celebrity babies with unique names?