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A grieving mum shared her own miscarriage experience to encourage others to break the stigma and talk about it more.

**Trigger warning**

Emily shared she was eight weeks pregnant when a routine ultrasound revealed she was about to experience a miscarriage.

“I had to pee so badly but they wouldn’t let me go.

They said I needed a full bladder because it’s easier to see the baby during the ultrasound. I remember feeling so frustrated not only because of my full bladder, but because I had to fill out what seemed like 50 pages of paperwork before I could empty my bladder and see the baby I’d been waiting to see for 8 weeks.

I finally was walked to the back room where I was greeted with a smile from everyone because the happiness from carrying a baby was contagious. The ultrasound began and I saw the images right in front of me. My heart was beating out of my chest. This was exciting!

This was a day my husband and I had been waiting for, for over a year.

But these images were different than the ones I’ve seen on Facebook that all my girlfriends had posted, something was wrong.

I saw nothing because my body was just hours away from miscarrying.

My ultrasound tech was quiet and I just knew. She left the room and my husband quickly assured me that “everything is fine.” But don’t tell that to a girl who has seen hundreds of ultrasound photos, who has searched Instagram for the hashtag “8weeks” to see what her baby now looked like.

I knew it wasn’t right and it wasn’t.

I remember being afraid to cry. I didn’t feel as if I deserved to cry because “I wasn’t that far along,” and “this happens all the time.”

I remember holding back the tears with every ounce of my being and not being able to look my husband in the face because I knew his pain would break me.

I was sent home to let my body naturally run its course and it did. I felt everything but had nothing to show for it. My doctor didn’t let me leave without warning and she was right about everything. But what she didn’t warn me about was everything that would happen after the initial heartbreak and pain.

She didn’t tell me I was going to be reminded for weeks to come because my body was going to take that long to “clean out.” She didn’t tell me I was going to have to watch my husband weep. She didn’t tell me how hard it was going to be to tell my mom what had happened. She didn’t tell me that my body was going to continue thinking it was pregnant for weeks to come. She didn’t tell me how hard it was going be to tell people I was fine when I wasn’t. She didn’t tell me that this was going to make me a jealous person over-night. She didn’t tell me how much harder the question “when are you having kids?” was going to be. And she didn’t tell me that it was going to be so hard losing someone I had never met.

But she did tell me it was okay to cry and she did tell me that I wasn’t alone.

Miscarriages are SO real and so common, in fact, one out of four women experience a miscarriage; but don’t let that confuse you into thinking it hurts any less. As large as this statistic is, I still felt alone and I have finally figured out why: because no one talks about it.

It wasn’t until I started talking about it to my friends and family that I slowly realized I wasn’t alone. That my mom, my aunt, my sister, my sisters best friend all have experienced this heartbreak and pain, a heartbreak and pain I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.

People may wonder why I choose to talk about this after months have passed, but it’s the harsh reality that time really doesn’t heal all wounds so I am hoping sharing my story will help with the healing process. I am not looking for pity and I am not looking for answers. I am sharing this so that maybe one less woman will feel alone and use this as a reminder or message that there is hope after this heartbreak.

This is my hope for you…

I hope that you won’t feel alone.
I hope that you let yourself cry.
I hope that you will see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I hope that though your faith will be tested, you will be strong.
I hope you find peace.
I hope you won’t be afraid to try again.
I hope that you don’t blame yourself.
I hope that your friends hug you a little tighter.
I hope that you give someone else hope through your hardship
I hope that you are a light in the darkest of time.
…and I hope that you celebrate that baby’s life as much as you celebrate the next because no matter how short a life, all life deserves to be celebrated and all loss should be mourned.

Feel free to share if this spoke to you or you feel as if it might speak to someone you know.
{Matthew 7:7}”

Her words have touched the hears of thousands.

Her original post has been shared over 34,000 times. It also appeared on Love What Matters Facebook page and went viral receiving over 70,000 shares as well.

Please know you are not alone. Sands Understands, call anytime, 1300 072 637.

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  • Not going to tell all my story but in short while holidaying I started miscarrying trying to get across the street at night to a doctors surgery. I was hysterically crying and hubby was stopping traffic and holding me , while the —–doctor on the other side of the road was screaming at my hubby to just get her over here. Once inside the doctor (a woman) said coldly to me “you have lost it”. Not I am so sorry but you have lost your baby. She called my bub an it and that was the most hurtful thing anyone could have ever said. My bub was a growing little person not an IT. She was simply awful but the ambulance men, dr, nurses at the hospital where all lovely although there was no counselling or even talking about the loss back then.

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  • Such an incredibly bad and painful thing to go though.

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  • And no matter how old you are, you will always remember the one that didn’t make it to be a loved member of your family. No other child replaces them and nobody knows how you ache when their ‘birthday’ comes around. Time helps, but doesn’t heal all the wound.

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  • It’s so difficult to talk about miscarriage. You have fear that people don’t understand. And, sadly, a lot of times it’s really like that. So you keep everything inside. But that can be so painful and make the recovery so much longer. :-(

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  • I’m so glad I never experienced a miscarriage. It would’ve broke me. My sister did and she never spoke about it. I wonder how she really felt?

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  • What beautiful words. We really need to break the stigma around miscarriage, infant loss and infertility. It’s heart breaking that there’s an expectation to suffer in silence and mourn in secret. Much love to all mummas ❤️❤️

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  • i remember my first miscarriage very well. I was 12 weeks pregnant and went for a scan. They said I had a silent miscarriage. The baby was dead but was still in my womb. I had to go to the hospital to get a curettage under general anaesthetics and the only bed they had for me was on the maternity ward between all the mumma’s with newborn babies !! I wanted to go home with my husband and cried and I remember a nurse coming to me asking why I was crying and that she didn’t want me to be upset !! Can you believe it ?!


    • Btw In the end I went early home against advice of the doctors.



      • Ellen – I am so sorry for your experience. Being told not to cry is cruel and not helpful. I had something similar and it rips your heart apart. Every sympathy and well wish. x


      • Asking people not to cry.. We should let our emotions flow. What good can bring keeping everything inside? :-(
        I’m so sorry for your loss, Ellen. :-(

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  • I think it always helps to talk about sad events. You often find you are not alone, and that helps also.

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  • I’m so lucky to have never experienced this. I don’t think I’d have the strength to talk about it if I had. I have a lot of admiration for Emily right now.

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  • You are a very brave lady to write this lovely yet heart wrenching article. You tell it as it was for you and is too common an occurence. I was shocked to learn that so many pregnancies end by miscarriage.

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  • I lost my twins at 7 and a half weeks. It was heartbreaking. The first time I ran to the hospital because I was bleeding, the doctor told me that in her idea I was going to lose them both. She was right, but at that moment I would have preferred to have some hope. They tried all they could, but there was nothing to do.
    A miscarriage is something you will never forget. :-(

    Reply

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