BBC presenter, Tessa Dunlop, discusses baby loss

Published on: 10/10/2016

Tessa Dunlop, the BBC Coast presenter, has discussed her experience of baby loss, in the Mail on Sunday.

Tessa revealed that at four months pregnant, after contracting suspecting listeria, she lost her baby son. Previously, she reveals that she also experienced an 11 week miscarriage and an ectopic pregnancy. Her latest baby, was conceived through IVF.

In the article, Tessa discusses the pain and experience of going through such losses, particularly at the age of 41. She hopes to break the silence and taboo around pregnancy loss and challenge some of the comments and thoughts that others have around the topic.

Tessa writes: “We need to drop the old-fashioned taboos surrounding fertility and admit that many of the babies born to ‘older’ women in particular are accompanied by a painful back story.  Some only have a painful story.

Fewer celebrity ‘miracle’ births and more honesty about the pitfalls of middle age that are so cruelly exclusive to women would help everyone. Societally, it might even force us to work out a way of better supporting girls during that precious decade – somewhere between 24 and 34 years of age – when both emotionally and biologically they are best equipped to give birth.

More broadly, I hope that by sharing my pain it’ll serve as a reminder that we are all vulnerable. This autumn I will appear on BBC2 in a new series exploring Britain’s limitlessly fascinating landscape and history. I’ll look happy and successful. I was pregnant – I felt happy and successful. But now you know that behind the small screen scenes, I’m also in pain.  And I am not alone.”

 
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