Samantha Hanratty has given birth to her first child

Samantha took to Instagram to share a black and white picture of the baby's hand clutching her finger and wrote: "And just like that...my world got brighter[sunshine emoji] 12-31-24.(sic)"

In September, the 29-year-old star explained her son would need multiple surgeries after birth because doctors had found he would be born with a cleft lip - which occurs when facial structures developing in an unborn child don't close completely - and potentially a cleft palate.

She said in a video shared to TikTok: "I've been doing some updates on here and having a good time sharing these things with you and I thought I would share our latest update that our baby is going to have a cleft lip and a possible cleft palate.

"And at first the news was obviously shocking because it doesn't run in my family, it doesn't run in my husband's family.

"And the biggest thing that we all want is that we want our kids to be happy and we want our kids to be healthy."

Although Samantha found it tough when she was told the baby will need several surgeries soon after he is born, she is thankful to have a team of specialists to treat her little boy and is feeling "at peace".

She said: "It's still scary to think that your precious little baby is going to be going under anesthesia and that there's going to be difficulties.

"I am already preparing for the fact that I will not be able to nurse. I will be pumping and doing formula and it's been emotional, but I think that both me and my husband are at peace with the fact that we know that he's going to be okay.

"This was just a little bit of a different journey than what we had expected. I'm not going to lie and pretend that this has been the easiest of news, but I'm also, like I said, just incredibly grateful for how fortunate we are.

"1 in 700 children are born with a cleft lip and/or palate and we're praying that it's just in the lip and not in palate, just because there's more difficulties when it comes with closing things up and further surgeries. We're prepared for either way."