diff --git a/src/php/ext/grpc/php_grpc.c b/src/php/ext/grpc/php_grpc.c
index fa6f0be837b..9c7a9d98615 100644
--- a/src/php/ext/grpc/php_grpc.c
+++ b/src/php/ext/grpc/php_grpc.c
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ void postfork_child() {
   grpc_php_shutdown_completion_queue(TSRMLS_C);
 
   // clean-up grpc_core
-  grpc_shutdown();
+  grpc_shutdown_blocking();
   if (grpc_is_initialized() > 0) {
     zend_throw_exception(spl_ce_UnexpectedValueException,
                          "Oops, failed to shutdown gRPC Core after fork()",