Nothing is more heartbreaking to a woman who has been actively trying to get pregnant, gets pregnant only to suffer the loss of the baby through miscarriage. There are many different forms of miscarriage, however the main definition of a miscarriage is the loss of a fetus before 20 weeks gestation. After 20 weeks, it would be considered a stillbirth. Miscarriages are most likely to occur before a woman even knows she is pregnant (chemical pregnancy) and will often mistake bleeding for her normal period. The next stage where miscarriage is prevalent is any time during the first trimester. This is why some women breath a sigh of relief once they enter the second trimester.
There are many different types of miscarriage. An ectopic pregnancy is when a fertilized egg implants itself somewhere other than the uterus. A blighted ovum is when a baby does not develop but the gestational sac continues to grow. A missed miscarriage is when there are no obvious symptoms of miscarriage, such as cramps and bleeding, and the mom gets the news at a routine ultrasound that the baby’s heart has stopped beating.
It might (I use the word might heavily) bring some comfort for moms to know that miscarriages usually occur because there is something health-related wrong with the baby and it would not survive if brought to term. It is your body’s way of not working or supporting something that will not survive. If one or possibly two miscarriages in a woman’s life are not heartbreaking enough, woman all over the world proceed to have multiple miscarriages. Here are 15 of their stories.
15 Angie Baker
Angie Baker is so in love with her ten-week-old daughter, Raiya. Who wouldn’t be in love with their child? I think Baker has a bit more of a reason too as Raiya is her rainbow baby. Not only is Raiya her rainbow baby, but she is her first baby after 18 miscarriages. That’s right, you read that correctly, Baker has suffered 18 miscarriages.
Baker endured all her miscarriages over a span of 13 years, she had even started discussing the possibility of adoption with her partner. After her 17th miscarriage, a friend read a newspaper article about work being done at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals in Surrey. Baker was referred to the specialist there and a test found that she was suffering from high levels of a subtype of white blood cell, known as Natural Killer cells. These are responsible for protection from viruses. It is quite common, affecting about 15% of women. What was happening that the natural killer cells were too aggressive and responded to every fetus as a foreign body and attacked it.
Baker was put on steroids and fell pregnant for the 18th time. Unfortunately, this time, it was discovered that Baker was diabetic and the steroids caused high sugar levels which resulted in the 18th miscarriage. Baker was able to work with the medical team to find a solution, and soon gave birth to her true bundle of joy.
14 Sarah Prout
Sarah Prout is a teacher of metaphysics and manifesting and was devastated when her and her soon-to-be husband lost their first baby to miscarriage just a week before their wedding. This situation would only become more heartbreaking as the happy couple would go on to lose 4 more pregnancies in an 8 month period. What was confusing to Prout is that she already had 2 children with her first husband, so she knew that her body was able and capable of carrying a baby. She felt lost.
Their second pregnancy loss occurred on their honeymoon to the Dominican Republic. They had already seen the little bean on an ultrasound scan but Prout began to bleed. She describes what it is like to have the ultrasound technician break the news to you, “time stands still and you hold your breath because part of you already knows that the little being has already died inside you.”
When Prout fell pregnant for the 6th time she finally got some answers to all her questions. She had a mutated MTHFR gene which meant that she couldn’t process folate to hold onto pregnancy. She was given a 50/50 chance of carrying this baby to term. Luck was on her side as she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on March 23, 2015.
13 Candice Wills
As you can see in the picture, Candice Wills is holding her beautiful nine-month-old son, with another one of the way. By looking at this picture it’s easy to see that Wills is loving every minute of being a mom. She has a good reason to be, Wills lived through 12 miscarriages before she held her little baby for the first time.
Over the course of 13 years, Wills and her husband would suffer 12 miscarriages. It is estimated that 1 in four pregnancies will end in miscarriage, but Wills is one of the hidden number who endure recurrent miscarriages. This is when a women has 3 or more consecutive losses. Most of Wills’ loses were missed miscarriages. She stated that there was no warning signs that something was wrong. She had all the symptoms and positive tests, but when she went for her ultrasounds there was no heartbeat.
Wills fell into a deep depression and seeked out answers after her 12th loss, a doctor overhearing the couple share their story took on their case and discovered that Wills had a heart shaped uterus. This was making it difficult for embryos to implant properly. When it did implant, her cervix was weak and struggled to hold the baby. Wills found herself pregnant, and when she made it to 15 weeks, they stitched her cervix closed. They gave birth to their first son Alfie on Christmas Eve. A Christmas miracle!
12 Jenny Rubin
Jenny Rubin had always had a plan to have her first baby at the age of 28. There was no real reason for it, it just had always been that way. It was one of those thoughts most people have; one day I’ll get married, one day I’ll buy a house and one day I’ll have a baby. Little did Rubin know, she wouldn’t get pregnant until she was 36.
Rubin explained, and I am sure many women can relate, that when she decided to start trying to have a baby she didn’t think she would have a problem. She didn’t have a problem getting pregnant, she had a problem holding on to the pregnancy. By the time Rubin was 39 (that’s 3 years) she would have gone through 5 miscarriages. With Rubin’s first pregnancy she was so elated she didn’t wait the three months before announcing the big news, she told family, friends and facebook. This caused her to have to go back and announce publicly that she had lost her baby.
Rubin’s story also shows how the toll of recurrent miscarriages can play a part in relationships. All the losses caused a rift in her relationship with her husband, and they ended up divorcing.
11 Nancy Kerrigan
Celebrities and athletes are just like us, they go through struggles and challenges, triumphs and successes. Nancy Kerrigan is a very well know American Olympian figure skater, mostly known for getting attacked by fellow figure skater. Kerrigan always knew she wanted to be a mother, she stated “Since I was 10 years old, I always wanted to have three kids by the time I was 30.” Kerrigan and her husband were well one their way when they welcomed their son, Matthew into the world.
Shortly after Matthew was born, Kerrigan and her husband found themselves pregnant again, they were elated. Only to be told that the baby had passed away. They not only suffered themselves, but struggled in finding a way to explain this loss to their older son. Kerrigan did go on to have two more children, Brian and Nicole.
Kerrigan was a contestant on the popular show Dancing with the Stars, it was here that she revealed that over the course of a few years she had actually suffered 6 miscarriages. Kerrigan stated, “The first time that you go in and they tell you, ‘Oh there’s no heartbeat’, it’s devastating.”
10 A Blogger’s Heartbreak
The next entry comes from a blog, where the mothers name is not mentioned. The reason this woman created a blog and journaled her journey is to bring awareness to miscarriage. And to urge woman to come forward and talk about fetus and infant loss. This woman found herself in the same category as less than 1% of women. This is the group that are unfortunate to have recurrent miscarriage trying for their first child. At the age of 29, she had suffered 9 miscarriages in 24 months. She described it as awful, she said that it doesn’t get easier each time it gets harder to cope.
She calls herself lucky because 8 of the 9 miscarriages happened so early she did not need medical intervention. She also has received no answers as to why this is happening to her. After her third miscarriage she did visit with doctors and had a battery of tests done and everything always came back normal. The only hunch the doctors can lean on is that those sneaky killer cells we talked about earlier may be playing a part in this as well.
9 Devan McGuinness
Devon McGuinness and her husband have been through a lot of loss and a lot of pain on their fertility journey to conceiving a child. Within a span of 6 years they have been through 10 miscarriages. They searched for answers as to why McGuinness’ body was not holding on to the pregnancies, and didn’t get an answer until they lost their son (Triton) at 14 weeks gestation.
McGuinness had suffered with ovarian cysts in the past and had surgeries to remove them, she was told that there may be some scar tissue left over which may make it difficult to get pregnant. After her third miscarriage she was diagnosed with a luteal phase defect and progesterone deficiency. With treatment she went on to have a baby of her own. She thought all their loss was over. McGuinness went on to have miscarriages between childbirths of healthy babies. Showing that miscarriages can happen to anyone at any time.
8 Sarah Brennan
Sarah Brennan’s story is told in a different way than the rest, she shared that she had 10 miscarriages, but chooses to focus instead on pregnancy number 11. When Brennan read the positive on the test for the 11th time she was nervous to say the least. Almost expecting this pregnancy to end in loss. They booked a private scan which revealed a well formed sac, but it looks empty. They explain to the technician that this is their 11th pregnancy but it is too early for any reassuring words.
The arrive for another scan and again explain their history, they are in tears when they see a nicely formed sac and a heartbeat! This pregnancy does not end in heartbreak but continues to progress normal. At their anatomy scan they do notice a second pocket of amniotic fluid low down in the cervix area, but are assured that the baby is unaffected. Brennan encounters a scenario that she never thought she would have to deal with, her baby is coming early. Brennan is 29 weeks pregnant and it looks like her little one wants to come. She is hospitalized and put on the appropriate medicine to slow down labour. Little baby Eryn does come into the world early, but happy and healthy as can be!
7 Kelly Moseley
Here is yet another story about these killer cells. Yup, they effected our next mom Kelly Moseley. Moseley had endured 20 miscarriages over ten years before giving birth to her baby boy. That’s about 2 miscarriages a year. Her family and friends had pleaded with her to stop putting herself through the heartbreak of losing pregnancy after pregnancy, but Moseley would not give up. They placed Moseley on the steroids that were normally used to treat these killer cells, but she continued to lose pregnancy after pregnancy.
What did work was an anti-malaria treatment which also lowers the immune system. Moseley was the first patient to receive this treatment. Finally, she fell pregnant with her son and though her pregnancy was complicated by pre-eclampsia, he was delivered at 29 weeks weighing just under 3lbs. Since Moseley, doctors have used this treatment on other women and say they have a 70% success rate.
6 Laura Dove
This next story has a weird twist to it. Laura Dove struggled for years with pregnancy. Not only did she have over 15 miscarriages, she also delivered her son full term, who was a stillbirth. Almost 8 years after her stillbirth son was born, she had suffered a marriage breakdown and more miscarriages when she decided on a whim to go see a psychic.
Dove explained that it was purely curiousity as to why she visited the clairvoyant. The psychic told Dove that she was pregnant. Dove stated she couldn’t be as she was on the pill, but she had had a baby girl three months previously. The psychic was adamant saying that she was indeed pregnant with a little boy now. Not only was the psychic right in that Dove was pregnant, she did give birth to a baby boy 9 months later.
5 Jayne Lee
Jayne Lee is from Northamptonshire and has a 6 year old son Dylan. Her biggest dream is to give Dylan a little baby brother and sister. It is not for lack of trying, but Lee has suffered 13 miscarriages in the 2 years she has been trying for a sibling. There is a positive spin to this story as Lee is about to take part in a new trial that may help her become pregnant again and carry the baby to term.
In Coventry, they have set up the first national miscarriage research center. Miscarriage is the most common form of pregnancy loss, and does affect about 1 in 4 pregnancies. 1 in 4 pregnancies seems too common to me, so it is a positive change to notice research centers really taking the time and effort to look into this. Being that miscarriage is common, it is hard to grasp the fact that we just don’t know exactly what causes it. They know factors that may increase the likeliness of a miscarriage occurring but it is something that can be hard to pinpoint.
4 Samantha Bourner
Samantha Bourner and her husband David had been trying for 12 years to start a family. Bourner found herself pregnant after 2 years, when she lost her baby at 22 weeks. Over the next 10 years she suffered another 5 miscarriage and was about to give up hope of ever having a baby. Bourner was diagnosed with Antiphospholipid syndrome, which causes an increased risk of blood clots and raises the risk of miscarriage. Doctors were convinced this was what was cause the numerous miscarriages,
Since this syndrome causes a person’s blood to be sticky, they prescribed Bourner aspirin, which is a drug that helps thin the blood. Finally, Bourner and her husband found themselves pregnant again, with twins! She lost one of the baby’s at 9 weeks pregnant and became terrified she would lose the other one. In an effort to save the remaining twin, doctors placed a stitch into her cervix to stop it from opening too early. Bourner and her husband were thrilled when the surviving twin Noel came into the world.
3 Lytina Kaur
Lytina Kaur went on what can only be described as a roller coaster after she spent most of her life thinking she could never have children suddenly finds herself the mother of four children within 9 months. When Kaur was only 17 years old she was diagnosed with leukaemia and by the time she was 18 she was told she would never be able to have children. In the years that followed Kaur would have a total of 17 miscarriages.
In the process of finding other means to have children she had arranged to have a surrogate who was able to conceive twins for Kaur. Kaur was in for a shock when she discovered that she herself was pregnant and this time everything went well and Kaur gave birth to her daughter in September 2015. Two months later, Kaur became a mother again when her twins were born. To make life even more hectic for this already busy mom, she quickly conceived again and in June 2016 she gave birth to her last child. As busy as she must be, Kaur could not be more thrilled.
2 Polly Curtis
Polly Curtis sees pregnancy as more a grey area than black or white. Most woman see pregnancy as two lines you are and one line you’re not, but Curtis sees that area in between where something could wrong. Curtis had her first child at the age of 29, and when her first born had turned three she became desperate to add to her family. Since she had already had one child she assumed everything would go fine.
She was wrong. Over the space of three years trying to conceive she would suffer 8 miscarriages. All miscarriages were considered early as they occurred before 9 weeks of pregnancy. This doesn’t make the process any easier. Curtis states that she got to the point where she knew she was having a miscarriage before the common symptoms displayed themselves. But she always had to make that painful journey to the hospital where it could be medically confirmed.
Eventually Curtis and her husband stopped trying and just became at peace with the one child they had. Of course, they got pregnant again and for reasons unknown to Curtis this pregnancy stuck. They couldn’t be happier with their two boys.
1 Anju Kushwaha
This might be one medical record no woman would want to break. In India, Anju Kushwaha miscarried 10 babies in one night. I had to look up multiple sources to make sure I wasn’t reading fake news. Sure enough, this is a true story. The Indo-Asian News Service reported that the mother delivered 9 of her babies at home, before arriving at the hospital where she delivered the 10th. The babies made it to 12 weeks gestation.
Kushwaha had undergone in vitro fertilization, which resulted in her carrying 10 babies at once. However, she suffered ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome which is a complication from fertilization medication. Lack of in vitro follow up care is also to blame. If doctors had been able to assess her, they would have noticed the development and would have been able to save at least 3 babies by reducing the pregnancy.
Sources: theguardian.com, mirror.co.uk, dailymail.co.uk, huffingtonpost.com, itv.com, thesun.co.uk, digexpert.com, babble.com, tommys.org, bbc.com