James Van Der Beek and his wife Kimberly Van Der Beek are marking the anniversary of their "brutal pregnancy loss" by encouraging fans to donate their blood.
In a heart-wrenching Instagram post on Monday, Kimberly, 38, reflected on her past miscarriages — the first of which happened last November and the second this past June and how blood donations "saved" her life when she was hospitalized.
"Tomorrow, Nov 17th marks one year after I was taken to the hospital after a 17 week miscarriage put my life on the line," she began. "It took two hours to stabilize me. My life was saved by blood donors and hospital staff."
"Tomorrow, Nov. 17th also marks the due date of a baby I met far too early as I had another miscarriage at 17 weeks along, June 14th," Kimberly continued. "Blood transfusions saved my life a second time."
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The mom — who shares children Gwendolyn, 2, Emilia, 4½, Annabel Leah, 6½, Joshua, 8½, and Olivia, 10, with James, 43 — went on to urge fans to consider giving blood to help save lives.
"We are getting into the holidays and there’s been a lot of distress in the world," she wrote. "If you’re healthy and motivated, please consider donating blood tomorrow or sometime soon. Please share far and wide and let’s fill those blood banks up for the holidays. THANK YOU DONORS!!! ❤️."
James also shared his wife's post on his Instagram Stories, writing in the caption: "Today is the one year anniversary of a brutal pregnancy loss…"
"Please consider donating blood…. It saved @vanderkimberly's life," the Dawson's Creek alum added.
Last month, Kimberly revealed that she and James had named their unborn sons John and Zachariah. In an Instagram Live session, she noted that one of the miscarriages "almost killed" her and talked to her followers about how her "intuition" told her ahead of time that something was wrong.
"I was told I was gonna have the [first] miscarriage a few minutes before it happened; I was told I was gonna have to go to the hospital a few minutes before they had to make a decision," she recalled.
"After the fetus came out," said Kimberly, she "was told exactly where to bury it" — "in the mama plant," a passion-fruit vine that she had recently procured, almost by accident.
"So we have two fetuses in our mama plant, and we named them John and Zachariah," she continued. "And so John and Zachariah are buried in the mama plant, and I decided today to have an artist make some sort of wood structure that I'll put the mama plant in the earth [underneath], and so she can grow up around it."
When asked about if she's open to having more kids in the future during a recent episode of The Make Down podcast, Kimberly said the "possibility is there" since she has decided not to use birth control.
"And, in fact, I will not take birth control. It really took me years to rebalance my system after birth control," she explained, adding, "But I need to feel really good in my body if I'm going to explore [having more kids]. And right now I'm not there."
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