She's a doting mum to daughters Ava, 14, Hero, 10, and son Apollo, two. But singer Myleene Klass has spoken out about the four devastating miscarriages she has suffered and admitted that she couldn't enjoy being pregnant with son Apollo for fear of being told 'there's no heartbeat.'
Miscarriage is the most common kind of pregnancy loss, affecting around one in four pregnancies.
Tonight, the the former Hear'Say star’s documentary Myleene Klass: Miscarriage & Me airs on W channel at 9pm. In the show, the 43 year old opens up about the impact miscarriage has had on her.
"I woke up and it was bleeding and it wasn't like normal bleeding," she explains.
"I think the language around miscarriage – miss, you miss something – It's just always so negative. A failed pregnancy, an incompetent cervix."
"It just goes on and on, 'how did you lose the baby?' and so immediately the first thing you do, is you look inwardly," admits Myleene.
"That's part of the reason why I wanted to make this documentary. You already feel like you've failed, and you look for that safety in numbers with other women who've been through this.
"I lost a lot of me," she added. "I couldn't talk about it for a year, I couldn't even say the word."
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‘Rainbow babies’ is the term now adopted for babies who arrive after a miscarriage, like Myleene’s son Apollo. PM Boris Johnson’s wife Carrie, 31, has spoken of the rainbow baby she is expecting, too.
Speaking out is not easy, and especially when you have the eyes of the world on you, but Myleene isn't the only celebrity to have bravely spoken out about baby loss and the pain that surrounds it. Here, we take a look at the other famous faces who have spoken about their struggle with baby loss…
Chrissy Teigen
The 34 year old model – wed to singer John Legend – admitted that following her own pregnancy loss, at 20 weeks, they were "shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we've never felt before". They named their baby boy Jack, and shared on Instagram black and white images of him.
Though her post was met with controversy, many felt her willingness to let the world in on such a painful, vulnerable moment was a show of solidarity with those who have suffered through baby loss, which is still something often struggled through in private, behind closed doors.
"On this darkest of days, we will grieve, we will cry our eyes out. But we will hug and love each other harder and get through it," Chrissy concluded.
Kate Beckinsale
The Underworld actress, now 48, came out in support of Chrissy Teigen and revealed that she’d experienced a similar type of miscarriage "many years ago".
"Years ago, I lost a baby at 20 weeks. I had managed to keep my pregnancy quiet and I absolutely collapsed inside and no one would have known.
"There is grief, shame and shock so often that come with an experience like this, plus the heartbreak of your body continuing, after the loss, to act as if it had a child to nurture. Your milk comes in, with no one to feed. It can be the loneliest, most soul destroying period of time."
Kym Marsh
The Corrie star, 45, lost Archie – her child with ex-partner Jamie Lomas – 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy in 2009.
"We never got to know what kind of a little boy he was or what he would’ve liked. What colour would his eyes or his hair have been?" said Kym.
"We took his ashes home in a tiny box and I keep them next to my bed."
"I think of Archie every day," she previously admitted. "I still talk to him to say goodnight or I love you."
Later, art would imitate life when the actress played out a harrowing storyline on ITV’s Corrie which echoed her loss – with her character Michelle Connor having a miscarriage at 23 weeks.
Lily Allen
The 35 year-old singer was left traumatised following a complicated still birth in 2010 when the umbilical cord became wrapped around her baby's neck.
"The hardest thing about that was losing a child, but there were complications with the actual delivery,’"Lily has said on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. "He was so small he actually got stuck halfway in and halfway out, so to speak, during the delivery," before adding: "I went into trauma and I don’t think I’ll ever really recover from that."
Amanda Holden
The Britain's Got Talent judge, 50, sadly lost her son named Theo in 2011.
"People say they miscarried a baby, which is a horrible thing in itself, but giving birth and having a miscarriage are two totally different things"' she told the Telegraph . "I always want to make sure you know he was stillborn."
Amanda has two daughters Lexi and Holly.
What is a miscarriage?
Miscarriage is when a baby (or fetus or embryo) dies in the uterus during pregnancy. In the UK, that definition applies to pregnancies up to 23 weeks and 6 days, and any loss from 24 weeks is called a stillbirth. (This is not the case in all countries.) If the baby is born alive, even before 24 weeks, and lives even for a matter of minutes, that is considered a live birth and a neonatal death.
Those are legal timelines and definitions but you might feel that they don’t fit your circumstances, perhaps especially if your baby died late in pregnancy but before 24 weeks. It can be upsetting, too, because you can’t register a miscarriage.
Why do miscarriages happen?
Even though miscarriage is so common, there’s a lot we still don’t know about why it happens. That means that most women never find out the cause of their loss, even if they have investigations.
It can be very difficult to cope with not having an obvious reason for your miscarriage. If you know why it happened, that can help make sense of it all, and perhaps help you plan for another pregnancy. If you don’t know, you may begin to wonder whether it was somehow your or your partner’s fault.
Causes of miscarriage
The main causes of miscarriage are thought to be:
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Genetic: This is when the baby doesn’t develop normally right from the start and cannot survive. This is the cause of more than half of all early miscarriages.
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Hormonal: Women with very irregular periods may find it harder to get pregnant; and when they do, are more likely to miscarry.
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Blood-clotting problems: Problems in the blood vessels that supply the placenta can lead to miscarriage, especially if the blood clots more than it should.
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Infection: Minor infections like coughs and colds are not harmful. But very high fevers and some illnesses or infections, such as German measles, may cause miscarriage.
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Anatomical: There are three main anatomical causes of miscarriage:
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If the cervix (the bottom of the uterus) is weak, it may start to open as the uterus becomes heavier in later pregnancy and this can cause a miscarriage.
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If the uterus has an irregular shape, there may not be enough room for the baby to grow.
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Large fibroids (harmless growths in the uterus) may cause miscarriage in later pregnancy.
For many women and their partners, it can be a very difficult and distressing experience and often quite a lonely one too.
If you're looking for support or more information about premature births, stillbirths or miscarriage, Tommy's have a free helpline 0800 0147 800 (open 9 – 5, Monday to Friday). There's also a Facebook group.
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