Sarah's Story

Tommy's guest blog, 21/08/2017 

A couple who endured two early miscarriages are raising money for Tommy’s again following the birth of their beautiful rainbow baby, Freddie.

Sarah and Rob Campbell decided to support the charity following their loss, with Rob taking part in last year’s Ride London 100 miles.

“We found the resources from Tommy’s incredibly useful during those really tough times, helping us to understand the process and possible causes.”

As a result of their hard work Sarah and Rob were able to raise an incredible £1,600, just 5 months after their last miscarriage. Sarah was able to cheer Rob from the sidelines, as well as helping to motivate the other Tommy’s riders.

What they didn’t know at the time was that Sarah was already pregnant with their rainbow baby.

Following the success of the Ride London event the couple decided to do more fundraising for Tommy’s, including a Christmas card and cake sale where they raised another £770. As well as this amazing achievement, they were able to share their good news with family and friends by this time.

However, pregnancy following multiple miscarriages can be an anxious and stressful time. Often miscarriages can remain unexplained despite their recurrences, causing expectant mothers to experience feelings of helplessness and persistent worry as they do everything to try and avoid another miscarriage.

As Sarah explained,

“One of the hardest things about the miscarriages for us was not knowing why they had happened, nobody could answer that question for us. I thought I would feel better once we got past the 12 week and 20 week scans but I didn’t. The innocent joy of being pregnant had been taken away from me when we lost our first baby.”

Sarah describes the periods of panic throughout the pregnancy, as her and Rob made multiple visits to the maternity triage because of changes in their babies movements.

“Most of the time everything turned out to be fine once they monitored baby, but towards the end of my pregnancy a visit to triage for reduced movements led to admission to the hospital due to baby’s decelerating heart rate.”

Despite this complication, Sarah gave birth to their beautiful rainbow baby Freddie around 12 weeks ago. This year she plans to take Freddie along to Ride London so they can cheer his Daddy along the 100 mile route.

Sarah hopes that the money they raise will help more people to have their rainbow babies.

“It will be a day of huge celebration for us as we feel incredibly lucky to have Freddie and will continue to support Tommy’s however we can in the future.”

If you have suffered a loss and are looking for answers, you can find more information on our dedicated stillbirth, miscarriage and premature birth pages on our website. Alternatively, our midwives are there to provide support if you are finding it hard to cope. You can talk to them on our pregnancy information line Monday to Friday from 9-5 at 0800 014 7800, or e-mail them at [email protected].