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5-7 years since pregnancy ended

Interview 26

Interview 26

Age at Interview: 34
Sex: Female
Background: Pregnancy ended in 2000. No. of children at time of interview: 2 + [1]. Ages of other children: 8, 6. Occupations: Mother - nurse, Father - policeman. Marital status: married. Ethnic background: White British.

Brief outline:She had 2 normal pregnancies, despite endometriosis, before 3rd pregnancy. 3rd pregnancy: 12-week scan detected problems with baby's heart and kidneys. Specialist scans - cardiac scan confirmed baby's heart undeveloped. CVS found no genetic cause. Pregnancy ended surgically at 14 weeks. She experienced gynaecological complications after termination.

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Says that as terrible as it feels at the time the sadness does get better and you can cope with it.
Print And as hard as it is, and as terrible as it is, it does get better and you do live. And you do laugh and you do enjoy your life again. And you don't think you will but you do. And [pause] it is really funny, I always feel there is a reason why something has happened to you. You might not know it now but further down the line you may. And I feel from what happened to me, my baby's heart might stop somebody else's baby having to be terminated, and that to me gives me strength, it gives me courage and doing things like this. It's good. It's good because I don't know. They can see me down the line - they may think I'm a scatty [laughs] you know, 'scatty woman' but I am okay now. I am alright. I can talk about it without having to bursts into tears or you know things like that. You won't ever forget and anniversaries will still come into your head just the same as your family's do and your children's, if you've got other children, will do. But you live with it and you cope with it and that, that thing in here that feels like it's been ripped out starts to come back, and you become a person again, not just the woman that this terrible thing has happened to. You focus on you, and not just on what's happened, and, yeah it's terrible but if you can help someone out of it then I feel that you've achieved something anyway even though it's awful.

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