Jennifer Snowden Opens Up About Her Life as a Mother: "I Didn’t Feel Like I Had a Purpose" Until Now

Charleston welcomed a brand new resident, Jennifer Snowden's son, Ascher, last September. But, in the months before his arrival into the world, the Southern Charm pal faced a difficult pregnancy and learned the news that her child had been diagnosed with a brain encephalocele. The diagnosis came 15 weeks into her pregnancy. And, now she's reflecting on that time in her life in an interview with The Daily Mail.

"Honestly at this point, after everything I’ve gone through, there’s not much that I’m afraid of anymore," she said. "I’m proud of myself and proud of Ascher. After I got the news I’d pray every night and I’d talk to my baby and tell him to be strong. I’d tell him you can rewrite what’s supposed to be a bad history."

Ascher is the first child for Jennifer and her partner, Lee. Shortly before Jennifer gave birth, she received some good news about her son. "It showed that his brain was healing itself and at that point I just thought if I had faith miracles could happen, who am I to say it couldn’t happen to him?" she recalled. "It was such a moment of joy, thankfulness and hope. We still weren’t out of the woods but it was hope."

Jennifer gave birth via C-section a few weeks early, and her son went into surgery immediately after the birth. "I couldn’t hold him for two days, I couldn't even see him properly because I couldn’t stand and his crib in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was too high for me to look into fully," she said. "But he was only in there for five days. I remember going to see him that first time and looking around and thinking that he was the healthiest baby in there. The others were fighting for their lives. He was only on a respirator while coming off anesthetics and on a feeding tube briefly."

Now that Jennifer's been a mom for about four months, she can't imagine her life any other way. "I feel like in all my years I’ve lived life to the full but I didn’t feel like I had a purpose and that’s lonely," she said. "Now Ascher is my purpose and sharing his story so that maybe even just one woman who’s in the position I was in, sees there is hope."

Check out the Charleston crew when they were kids, below.