One of the most loved women in Australian television, Georgie Gardner, has opened up about the intense grief and pain she went through when she suffered two miscarriages while trying for a third baby.
In an interview with the website Show and Tell, she spoke of her desperation to have a third baby and how her miscarriages ‘rocked her’.
“It really rocked me, absolutely rocked me. Some women I know have miscarriages and are very accepting and say that’s OK, that’s nature taking its course but, my god, it really took me to a very deep and dark place actually.”
Georgie Gardner recently announced she was leaving the Today Show to spend more time with her two children, Angus, aged seven and daughter Bronte aged nine.
Speaking about her miscarriages for the first time in depth, Georgie said that miscarriage is something which needs to be discussed and brought out more into the open.
“I don’t think it’s discussed enough, to be honest.”
For Georgie Gardner, the heartache of losing her baby is something that is still fresh, even years later.
“It doesn’t lessen the pain. I think there are a lot of women and men walking around feeling a real ache in their heart about losing babies, I really do.”
She said that the fact she lost her baby relatively early in her pregnancy was something she felt made people often lessen or dismiss the grief felt.
“I know no malice is intended, but people are often ready to dismiss it a bit,” she said. “I’m sure at 39 weeks of course it would be a lot harder, it would be a lot more harrowing than nine or 10 weeks, which was what I was.”
“It was still a life, and still a dream. It’s the possibility I guess because I had two (children already) I knew what an extraordinary miracle it is. I wanted it so badly.”
She says she found it extremely hard to move on from. Georgie’s two sister-in-laws both had babies at the time she suffered her miscarriage. She says she still looks at her nieces with a bittersweet grief and longing.
She compared how people dismiss miscarriage as to how they often dismiss the pain of divorce, something she says “is prevalent but is still painful”.
Georgie Gardner has previously spoken about the angst of her own parent’s divorce and the dark times that took place as a child.
She has previously said that the divorce was ’tumultuous’.
“We had a privileged upbringing, in the material and opportunity sense, but there was a lot of turbulence and confusion, and deep sadness brought on by a pretty bitter divorce,” she told Australian Women’s Weekly. “During the darkest period, my friends and siblings got me through.”
And it seems that her friends and family also got her through her miscarriages.
She said that at the time of her miscarriages she told a friend maybe she could not just ‘have it all’.
She says her friend’s comments stopped her in her tracks.
“Georgie Gardner,” her friend said, “many women would say you do have it all”.
In Georgie’s usual grace and compassion she told Show and Tell presenter Monty Diamond that while her losses give her much sadness she cherishes what she has.
“There is always someone out there who has had a more painful experience.”
To see the full series of interviews with Georgie, visit Show and Tell here.
Each year in Australia, approximately 150,000 couples experience reproductive loss; about 147,000 experience a miscarriage, 1,750 babies are stillborn and about 850 babies die in the first 28 days after birth.
If you need help or guidance in dealing with a loss contact Sands : Miscarriage, Stillborn and Newborn Death Support 1300 0 SANDS (1300 072 637)
Top Comments
I had a missed miscarriage in January at around 10 weeks, though the pregnancy itself ended weeks earlier. It was a stressful few weeks with 3 internal ultrasounds, blood tests etc. the doctors thought it was ectopic so I had a laparoscopy and d&c.
I only told family, a few friends and a couple of trusted colleagues. I was very hurt with how my MIL compared my experience with that of her daughter who gave birth at approx 20wks due to problems with the baby. My MIL said "at least" that didn't happen to me. I feel our experiences are different and not comparable and by saying "at least" meant my experience wasn't seen as being that bad. That certainly doesn't allow much expression of grief.
The emotional pain of miscarriage is a given, but did anyone out there find it painful in the physical sense? i found my miscarriages at 11 weeks unbelievably painful, crippling even, yet a friend didnt feel a thing.
My first pregnancy at 24 ended at 7 wks and was less painful than a normal period. My second miscarriage occurred two yrs later after giving birth to twins a year before and was more physically painful than giving birth to my third child recently. ( I'm now 27 so I don't believe age was a factor). It was an incomplete missed miscarriage at 10 wks so I spent another 2.5 wks walking around with a dead baby inside me. I spent 3 hours in full on labour without pain relief and it was more painful than 20 hrs of labour at 39 wks. I then also hemorrhaged two days later requiring hospitalisation and continued to bleed for three mths. This left me physically stuffed and that's not even touching on the emotional pain.