Zoe Saldana Opens Up About Her Scary Emergency C-Section: We Came 'Close to It All Changing Forever'

Zoe Saldana is the mom of two happy and healthy baby boys – a title that was once in peril.

Saldana opens up about her scary, 2014 emergency C-section and welcoming Cy Aridio and Bowie Ezio, now 18 months, into the world prematurely in the July issue of Allure.

“The boys came at 32 weeks,” she explains. “They found protein in my urine; my platelets crashed. I didn’t qualify for an epidural, so I delivered under general anesthetic. I didn’t even meet them until a day later.”

PATRICK DEMARCHELIER

The children landed in the neonatal intensive care unit, she previously told PEOPLE, while Saldana waited and worried.

“Looking back, I think the boys were 3 or 4 months old, and one morning I woke up with just this flood of emotions,” she says in Allure. “[Husband Marco Perego] had them, too, and we were able to have our deconstruction session in the bathroom while they were napping, to say to each other, ‘Holy s—, did we come close to it all changing forever?’ ”

She continues, “We allowed ourselves to have a moment of ‘poor us.’ And that was it. Then somebody cried, and it was ‘Got to go!’ ”

PATRICK DEMARCHELIER

Now, the couple has gotten into the stride of parenting – save for one mommy duty.

“Everybody told me, ‘Oh, don’t worry, I know you hate changing diapers, but when you have your own kid … Well, guess what? I had my own kids, and I will do whatever I need to do to not change a dirty diaper,” the 37-year-old jokes.

— Lindsay Kimble