Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, has revealed that she had a
miscarriage in July
, in a surprisingly intimate account of her traumatic experience.
"I knew as I was holding my first child that I was losing my second," Markle wrote in an opinion piece published Wednesday in The New York Times.
Markle and her husband Prince Harry have an 18-month-old son, Archie.
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"Hours later, I was in a hospital bed, holding my husband's hand. I felt the palm of his hand and kissed his knuckles, wet with both of their tears. Looking at the cold white walls, my eyes turned glassy I tried to imagine how we would heal ourselves, "he says.
The 39-year-old Duchess says she shares her story to
help break the silence
around an all too common tragedy.
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"Losing a child means carrying an
almost unbearable grief
, experienced by many but few speak of," Markle continues.
"By being invited to share our pain, together we take the first steps towards healing," he adds.
In the account surprisingly, the Duchess described how the tragedy struck on a "morning that began as ordinarily as any other day."
"Make breakfast. Feed the dogs. Take vitamins. Find the missing sock. Pick up the colored pencil that fell under the table. Tie my hair into a ponytail before taking my son out of his crib." , bill.
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"After changing his diaper, I felt a sharp cramp.
I threw
myself on
the floor with him in my arms,
humming a lullaby to keep us calm, the happy melody contrasted with my feeling that something was not right," he continues.
Sophie King, a midwife for the UK charity for missing children Tommy's, said that miscarriage and stillbirth remains
"a real taboo in society
, which is why mothers like Meghan, sharing their stories, they take a vital step to break that stigma and that shame. "
"Your honesty and outspokenness today sends a powerful message to anyone losing a baby: You may feel incredibly lonely, but you are not alone," King said.
A painful and silent loss
While in the United Kingdom one in eight pregnancies in which a woman knows she is pregnant ends in an abortion, according to the National Health Service of Great Britain, in the
United States it
occurs in
1 in 100 pregnancies per year
, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to the March of Dimes organization, up to 15% of women who know they are pregnant suffer a miscarriage before the 20th week of gestation.
When the loss occurs later this week there is talk of stillbirth.
The Duchess's case is not the first to be made public by a celebrity.
Last month, model Chrissy Teigen also shared her grief after the loss of her baby.
“We are in shock and in that deep pain that one hears that we have never felt before.
We could never stop the bleeding (…) ”, said the wife of the singer John Legend (with whom he already had two children).
For reasons that are very complex and rooted in the taboo surrounding pregnancy loss, most of these women feel that they must grieve silently, even when it becomes a barrier to emotional healing.
Edited by Gabriela Martínez with information from The New York Times and AP.
