Charlotte Crosby has opened up about the heartbreaking miscarriage she suffered after falling pregnant with her third baby. The former Geordie Shore star and her fiancé Jake Ankers had to endure an agonising two-week wait before the loss could be confirmed.
Plans for a Third Child
The reality star, who already shares daughters Alba, three, and one-year-old Pixi with Jake, discovered she was expecting again in March. With two previous pregnancies described as 'plain-sailing', she had no expectation that anything could go wrong. She had begun planning for the new arrival, looking at bigger cars and even filming a social media reveal video.
However, when she attended her first scan, the sonographer could not find an embryo. The couple were advised to wait for two weeks, as there remained a possibility that it was simply too early to detect the baby. But that wait only prolonged their agony.
Silent Miscarriage Diagnosis
In an interview with Fabulous magazine, Charlotte, 36, admitted her naivety: 'Never in my wildest dreams did I think something was going to go wrong. It was probably really naive of me, because these things are common, but it just never crossed my mind after it being so plain sailing for the first two.'
She recalled a 'moment of silence' during the scan that hinted at bad news. A subsequent scan with her doctor in London confirmed their worst fears. The doctor, who had delivered their first two children, was unusually quiet. Charlotte said: 'I thought: Oh, f**k, this really isn’t good.'
The diagnosis was a 'silent miscarriage', also known as a missed miscarriage, where the baby has not developed but the body has not physically miscarried. Pregnancy hormones can still be present, so the news often comes as a complete shock.
Support and Statistics
Charlotte still has the video clips she filmed of her parents' and friends' reactions to the pregnancy, but they now fill her with sadness. Tommy's, a charity dedicated to pregnancy and fertility, states that as many as one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage, with early ones sometimes happening before a woman even realises she is pregnant.
For support around pregnancy and baby loss, visit tommys.org.
