TV PRESENTER KATHRYN Thomas spoke about her experience of suffering two miscarriages on RTÉ’s The Late Late Show last night.
She told Ryan Tubridy that talking about it is still something of a “taboo” subject in Ireland and that it really helps to reach out and talk about it if it’s something you’ve gone through.
Thomas described how she and her partner had been trying for a baby and, when she became pregnant, they went for a holiday in Greece.
“I was over the moon,” she said. It was while on holiday in Greece, however, that tragedy struck.
She said: “I was six weeks when I suffered my first miscarriage.”
Thomas described how she then had to travel by boat to a hospital in Athens where nobody spoke English. “It was the most horrific experience,” she said.
Because of our line of work, I’d interviewed so many women who’d had a miscarriage… I think until it happens to you – like I’m a very positive person – when it happened to me it completely floored me.
She said that when the couple arrived home they said that they were just “unlucky” and it is something that so many women go through.
It was another eight months before Thomas became pregnant again. “I was absolutely bricking it,” she said. “It got to six weeks and went for the scan and got the all-clear… Six weeks was when it all went wrong last time.
That night, I miscarried again. That hit me like a tonne of bricks. It was very difficult to stay positive… You go through self-blame, you go through ‘why me?’, you go through ‘is it ever going to happen?’.
She then told Tubridy the reason she decided to come on the show and speak about it.
“The reason I wanted to come on and talk about it tonight,” Thomas said. “I was asked the question all the time ‘when are you having a family?’. That gets quite tiring but you face it when you’re in the public eye.
What helped me is that there are so many amazing forums out there for people who’ve been through miscarriage. There are so many helplines. I didn’t go through counselling, but to talk about it – it’s still a taboo subject in Ireland.
“I think it needs to be considered part of the pregnancy process, because it is. It’s taken us three long years… Until I have a baby in my arms it’s still weird to talk about it.
If it gives anybody hope out there, to try and stay as positive as you can – even if you don’t feel it – that would be the only piece of advice I’d give.
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