During my first pregnancy we found out at our 12 week scan that we were having twins but due to a rare complication (trap sequence) one of them wasn’t going to survive. The midwifes gave us an option to terminate or continue the pregnancy and I said I wanted to give the perfectly healthy baby a chance. So we agreed to have regular check ups and scans to monitor the babies progress with a specialist in Birmingham. Then at 16 weeks we discovered the babies heart had stopped beating, so we had to go back to Leeds for me to have a medically induced miscarriage in order to deliver the babies.

It was unbelievably hard for me and my partner but we received a lot of care and support from the midwifery team and doctors, and we received support from Sands, Aching Arms and Tommy’s.



During our second pregnancy I suffered with severe anxiety and PTSD from the previous experience and my midwifery team were so good and I was able to get the right support for my mental health, extra checks and scans for peace of mind and it was nice to always see members of the same team and was really happy to see the midwife I had in community to induce my labour and then again for post natal check ups. It felt really nurturing and made me feel at ease in a really emotional and tense situation. It didn’t feel like I was on a conveyer belt but that my pregnancy and birth really mattered.

Carrie has shared her story to support our #AlwaysThere campaign during June 2021 to ensure all women pregnant after loss are offered the same maternity team to care for them and their baby, through pregnancy, birth and afterwards. Find out more: sands.org.uk/alwaysthere