Derek Hough and wife Hayley Erbert reflected on how welcoming their rainbow baby at home meant she couldn’t get any pain management or epidural.
“You don’t know what sounds you can make until you have a child,” Erbert, 31, told People in an interview published Wednesday, January 21, while recalling how daughter Everley’s December 2025 arrival at home meant she “didn’t have the option of an epidural or any pain management.”
Erbert referred to the experience as “really so special.”
“It was very unique,” she added. “Did I ever expect it to be the way that it was? Absolutely not, but it was so empowering and beautiful, and it’s how our beautiful baby girl came into this world. I would not change a single second of it. It was perfect in every way.”
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Hough, 40, meanwhile, recalled the atmosphere, saying, “We had candles everywhere, beautiful music playing. To be in the room during Hayley’s labor, holding her … She just became power. I was in awe the whole time. I was like, ‘Damn. Y’all women are badasses.’”
Erbert also addressed the current state of her health more than two years after undergoing surgery to replace a large portion of her skull that was removed during a craniectomy.
“Honestly, I’m always looking out. If I get a headache, I instantly have some, like, PTSD where I’m like, ‘Is this going to go away?’ Because it all started with just a headache,” she noted. “But there’s really nothing that I have to be aware of or be on the lookout for. It’s just living life.”
Hough and Erbert began dating in 2015 and announced their engagement seven years later. They tied the knot in 2023, the same year Erbert was hospitalized and treated for a cranial hematoma.
“One of the first things Hayley said when she came to after her surgery — missing half of her skull, face swollen — was not, ‘Am I going to be able to dance again?’ It was, ‘Am I able to have children in the future?’” Hough recalled to People. “The doctor was like, ‘Yes, of course.’ And here we are.”
The pair announced Erbert’s pregnancy in July 2025. While awaiting their daughter’s arrival, the couple revealed Erbert previously suffered a miscarriage.
“There are some things in life that change you forever,” they wrote in a joint post via Instagram in October 2025. “For us, this is one of those things. A chapter of love, loss, heartbreak, and everything in between. As we are now in October, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, we share this part of our story to honor our baby that never made it earthside. One in four pregnancies end in miscarriage, a silent heartbreak so many families know, and one we unfortunately had to experience. As we share this, know that there’s a rainbow not far behind. ♥️🌈.”
While speaking with People, Erbert expressed gratitude for having a “decently easy pregnancy” with Everley.
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“I didn’t really have any morning sickness. I had some food aversions, but I felt really at peace,” she added on Wednesday. “Anytime I would feel a movement, I’d be like, ‘Oh, my gosh, babe, this is wild.’”
She continued: “I felt like I had a little alien inside of me. Everley does these karate kicks when we’re changing her. I was like, ‘That’s what was happening inside of me.’ It’s really cool to be able to see it now in real life.”
Erbert also explained why the couple chose not to announce her pregnancy until she was nearly 20 weeks along with Everley.
“I didn’t have a whole lot of symptoms in the beginning, I was feeling so good, so I got really scared that something happened. It really freaked us out,” she said. “When we were on our adventures, we tried to live life to the fullest because we knew it’d be the last year of just the two of us. But when we’d get home, we’d do a scan just to make sure everything was still OK.”
Looking ahead, Erbert and Hough aren’t ruling out the idea of expanding their family again.
“There’s a saying that your first one makes you want a million children, and your second makes you feel like you have a million. So I’m like, ‘OK, good to know,’” she told the outlet, while Hough added, “I know, because after this we’re like, ‘All right babe, let’s go! Let’s go.’”
