Re­al­i­ty TV per­son­al­i­ty Shaee­da Sween is ex­pect­ing her first ba­by.

The 90-Day Fi­ancé star ap­peared with her hus­band, Bi­lal Hazz­iez, in sea­son nine of the re­al­i­ty TV show, which is broad­cast on the Amer­i­can tele­vi­sion net­work TLC.

“I am over­whelmed. I’m 40 to­day,” said Sween, who ap­peared on CNC3’s Break­ing Stereo­types on Au­gust 15.

“I prayed for this; I want­ed this. I was 37 years old when I did the show and I said that. I made a prayer. This is a bless­ing to me.”

Sween’s hus­band shared the news on In­sta­gram while wish­ing her a hap­py birth­day last Thurs­day.

“This year, you’ve giv­en us the most pre­cious gift of all—our lit­tle one on the way. Af­ter ex­pe­ri­enc­ing two mis­car­riages, we are be­yond ex­cit­ed for our new ad­di­tion to the fam­i­ly,” he wrote.

The preg­nan­cy an­nounce­ment comes af­ter the yo­ga in­struc­tor ex­pe­ri­enced two mis­car­riages over the past year.

“For the first mis­car­riage, I was re­al­ly sad and re­al­ly dis­ap­point­ed,” she said.

“When it hap­pened the sec­ond time, I was dis­traught and dev­as­tat­ed; I gave up, I let go.

“Be­fore I was count­ing when ovu­la­tion comes, when to get preg­nant,” she added.

“When the sec­ond preg­nan­cy came, I thought it was go­ing to be the re­al thing, then there was the mis­car­riage, and I was like, I’m done.”

Ac­cord­ing to ob­ste­tri­cian and gy­nae­col­o­gist Dr Sherene Kalloo, a mis­car­riage is the un­ex­pect­ed end of a preg­nan­cy. “It is the loss of preg­nan­cy be­fore 26 weeks in Trinidad and 24 weeks in the Unit­ed States. There are many rea­sons for mis­car­riages, ab­nor­mal­i­ties, in­fec­tion, cer­vi­cal in­com­pe­tence, fi­broids and a host of is­sues.”

Sween, who was aware that her bi­o­log­i­cal time clock was tick­ing, was scared of hav­ing an­oth­er mis­car­riage.

“I put away every­thing, and I think that is when it hap­pened,” she said. When you let go, you let God. And that is when it hap­pened; I didn’t even know.”

Sween re­called that in April she start­ed feel­ing very sick.

“I thought I was dy­ing. My mom said, ‘You need to re­lax. Go and drink a cup of tea and re­lax.’ The mo­ment I drank the green tea, I vom­it­ed im­me­di­ate­ly. I said mom, I vom­it­ed the green tea. She said, ‘You’re preg­nant.’ I said I just had a mis­car­riage, and she said to me, ‘You can get preg­nant af­ter a mis­car­riage, a lot of women get preg­nant right af­ter.’”

Sween was scared to take a preg­nan­cy test.

“Af­ter the first and sec­ond preg­nan­cy when I took the preg­nan­cy test, two weeks lat­er it was gone,” she said.

“It took me a while to take that preg­nan­cy test. I got re­al­ly sick, and my hus­band was like, ‘You are preg­nant.’”

The new ex­pe­ri­ence of morn­ing sick­ness was sur­pris­ing to her.

“I find my­self on my bed say­ing, God, I know I want­ed this, but this is so hard,” she said.

“My moth­er said, ‘Shaee­da, women ex­pe­ri­ence this, but they don’t speak about it like you. They go through their pain, and they keep it silent.’

“Not me I want every­one to know that I am vom­it­ing and that I have nau­sea.”

Morn­ing sick­ness is nau­sea and vom­it­ing dur­ing preg­nan­cy, Dr Kalloo said.

“It is ex­treme­ly com­mon for women dur­ing preg­nan­cy. It is one of the most com­mon symp­toms when mak­ing a di­ag­no­sis be­fore miss­ing the pe­ri­od. Morn­ing sick­ness peaks at ten weeks and comes back down at 14. If it con­tin­ues af­ter 14 weeks preg­nant women should con­sult their doc­tor,” she added.

Re­fer­ring to her ex­pe­ri­ence in the first trimester of preg­nan­cy, Sween said women are ex­pect­ed to be re­silient and not com­plain.

“Why do we stay qui­et?” she asked.

“Not me, I felt like I was dy­ing. I said to my moth­er some­thing is wrong. She said, ‘Noth­ing is wrong, dra­ma queen. Just lay down on your bed and wear your nau­sea band.’”

Sween said she hates that her preg­nan­cy was con­sid­ered one of ‘ad­vanced ma­ter­nal age.’

“They make you feel it is a geri­atric preg­nan­cy, that you’re old,” she added.

“I live a clean life—no smok­ing, drink­ing, or par­ty­ing. Please God, things will be great.”

Dr Kalloo said more women are be­com­ing preg­nant over the age of 40 in Trinidad. The ‘geri­atric’ ter­mi­nol­o­gy can be dis­cour­ag­ing for a pa­tient’s psy­che.

It’s now three years since Sween mi­grat­ed to the US to live with her hus­band whom she met on­line. The cou­ple per­formed Nikah—the mar­riage cer­e­mo­ny un­der Is­lam­ic law—on De­cem­ber 26, 2019. Due to COVID-19, Sween had to wait be­fore she was able to move to the US.

She ar­rived in the US in Sep­tem­ber 2021 and im­me­di­ate­ly start­ed film­ing for 90 Day Fi­ancé. She re­called the crit­i­cism she re­ceived from her Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty.

“We are our biggest en­e­my. I feel sad that we as Mus­lims judge each oth­er so hard; we don’t give each oth­er room to grow,” she said.

“We are at dif­fer­ent lev­els in our lives when it comes to faith. My moth­er is a per­fect ex­am­ple; she didn’t start off as a Mus­lim, but she learnt as she grew, and where she is to­day com­pared to 30 years ago is dif­fer­ent.

“We have to give each oth­er time and space to grow with­out judg­ing each oth­er. We have to look at the pos­i­tive; we fo­cus too much on the neg­a­tive. Don’t do this, don’t do that.

“I want oth­er Mus­lim women to know that you can be on an in­ter­na­tion­al plat­form, you can dress nice, you can wear your hi­jab, you don’t have to com­pro­mise your way of life, and just fol­low the guide­lines in a re­spectable man­ner.”

Sween heads back to the US to­mor­row with her hus­band.