Kourtney Kardashian is grateful an ultrasound scan helped save her unborn baby's life.

Kourtney Kardashian is preparing to give birth to her fourth child

Kourtney Kardashian is preparing to give birth to her fourth child

The 44-year-old star is expecting her first child with her husband, Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, and last month she underwent emergency surgery so she feels "lucky" because the unspecified issue was detected while she was having an extra monitoring session that women in the US don't routinely receive.

Kourtney - who already has Mason, 13, Penelope, 11, and eight-year-old Reign with former partner Scott Disick - told America's Vogue magazine: “That experience opened my eyes to a whole new world of pregnancy that I didn’t know about in the past.

"It was terrifying. After, I learned that insurance typically only covers two ultrasounds when you’re pregnant, I had no idea. I’ve always been lucky enough to do more than what insurance covers, and it’s one of those ultrasounds that saved my baby’s life.”

The Poosh founder has found being classed as a geriatric mother due to her age "wild" because she's had to take so many more precautions than she did in her previous pregnancies.

She explained: “That word is just so wild. But my doctors are so cautious and I’ve had so many more restrictions than my other pregnancies. The first trimester was no working out, no flying on airplanes, no sex. Then the second trimester, I could do anything. Now, I am back to all the restrictions.”

But the 'Kardashians' star was surprised to find little else has changed since she had her first child.

She said: “I am surprised so many things haven’t changed since my previous pregnancies. Jen Atkin sent me her list of all her must-have baby things I was like, 'Are you serious? This is all the same stuff from 10 years ago.' ”

When she's given birth, Kourtney plans to practice attachment parenting and won't be leaving the house for at least a month.

She said: “That’s what I did for my last two kids, we didn’t leave the house for the first 40 days. After, you’re super-connected and I love that."