?It is with great sadness and heartache that we have said goodbye to our little baby.? Raw with grief, Melanie Black posted these painful words to her Facebook page last December.
The 33 year old had just returned home from an emergency ultrasound and the devastating moment when the technician confirmed Black?s baby no longer had a heartbeat. She had miscarried at 10 weeks.
?I balled. It?s just so tough,? says Black, who had struggled to get pregnant for five years. ?When you want something so badly? and then to have that taken away.?
Just a week before, Black and her husband Steve were inundated with well wishes after posting Facebook photos of their seven-year-old daughter Sadie holding a ?big sister? sign. This was their Pinterest-inspired way of telling a broad circle of family, friends and coworkers they were expecting the second child they had long hoped for. But the couple wasn?t sure what to expect after sharing the news of Black?s miscarriage. Social media streams are flooded with carefully filtered highlight reels of people?s lives?not a devastating revelation still shrouded by stigma. Steve was hesitant to post about their loss, but Black felt they had to since they?d already made their pregnancy announcement.
?There?s nothing to hide,? she reassured him. ?It?s common to have miscarriages, unfortunately.?
And she?s right. According to The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, 15 to 20 per cent of pregnancies end in miscarriage?most often in the f...