Pippa O’Connor revealed she suffered a miscarriage last year in an emotional chat after announcing her pregnancy news.
The former model turned businesswoman announced she and her husband Brian Ormond are expecting their third child together, on Sunday night.
Taking to social media on Monday morning to thank her fans and friends for their well wishes, she told how the pregnancy comes after she suffered a tragic miscarriage last year.
The fashion and lifestyle boss said: “We’re just on cloud nine. Brian and I are so thrilled.
“We love babies and we always knew we wanted another baby but it never happened after Louis so we were kind of at peace with that.”
“I’m so happy with what we have and so grateful for what we have that I didn’t want to be always wishing for another but we always said if it happened, amazing.
“And when it didn’t happen for so long after Louis, we thought that’s okay.. We are happy with what we have.”
The POCO by Pippa founder went on: “Then last summer I got pregnant, which was the biggest shock, I literally could not believe it.
“And then unfortunately I had a miscarriage in October.”
In a teary chat with her fans on Instagram, she said: “I don’t want to be sad or getting too emotional when I’m actually so happy…
“But I suppose when you say something out loud, it is emotional.
“So that was October, I went for my second scan and unfortunately there was no heartbeat.”
Pippa, 36, who is mum to two boys Ollie, eight and Louis, five said she wanted to share her story to help others who are going through a similar situation.
STIGMA
Looking back at her own reaction at the time, she feels there is still a stigma surrounding the topic of child loss.
“Listen, I know so many people have been there and there are going to be so many people watching this who have just gone through it today or last week.
“And we all know how common it is, unfortunately, but I still think it’s unsaid."
The UP cosmetics beauty guru said she’s not sure she would have even opened up about her experience had she not fallen pregnant again.
“And to be honest, I don’t even know when I would’ve opened up about it if I wasn’t lucky enough to be pregnant again now because I suppose we don’t want to show vulnerability and I personally don’t want to feel sad.”
“But then I know how I felt at the time and I just wanted to hear someone else say, ‘That happened to me’.
“You want to be able to relate to someone.
“I’m so conscious of not wanting to upset people but I’m just sharing my own story and I just wanted to be truthful about what I went through.”
“Because you look at Instagram and you see someone sharing their lovely news and it can look like everything is perfect all of the time.
“But I can guarantee everyone’s been through something along the way.”
Recalling her own experience last year, she said: “After that I had to have a DNC and I remember waiting and on my phone looking up hashtags.. And nothing anyone can say can make it feel better.
“But I do think it made me feel better coming across people online or people in my own life saying ‘I know it’s shit, and I'm really sorry’ and that’s all you kind of want to hear.
“I can only imagine what it feels like to go through that multiple times..
She went on: “I think it definitely is still a stigma, I don’t know why..
“When I think back to the day I was told that when I went in for the scan, my first reaction was ‘okay, that’s fine’ and I just leaped out of the bed and I just wanted out of there I didn’t want any comfort.. I was nearly embarrassed, which sounds so silly.. But you get a shock like that.. And that’s how I reacted anyway..”
The star, who announced her pregnancy news in a stylish black and white image showcasing her bump, thanked her followers for their kind messages since she shared the news.
FEELING THE LOVE
The blonde beauty, who boasts over 400,000 followers online said: “I’m just completely overwhelmed to be honest by the amount of messages that people are sending me.
“I’m feeling the love and feeling the kindness big time. It’s made me so emotional since last night. I can’t even begin to explain how grateful we are.”
“Now that I’ve said it out loud, it’s definitely feeling more real now. It was actually quite nice to have it to ourselves for those few months but yeah, it’s so lovely to say it.”
Pippa continued: “We only actually told the boys a couple of days ago because I didn’t want to say to them, ‘Don’t tell anyone,’ because I didn’t think that was fair. They’re so young.”
“They are, when I say excited, they are ecstatic… I’m delighted that they’re so thrilled.”
