TV presenter suffered miscarriage during live broadcast
Sara Walsh told of hidden heartache after suffering years of fertility problems
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Your support makes all the difference.An American television presenter has spoken of her trauma after she suffered a miscarriage during a live broadcast.
Sara Walsh was nearly three months pregnant when she lost her baby while hosting ESPN’s live Sportscenter show on the road from Alabama.
Her husband, Toronto Blue Jays baseball player Matt Buschmann, watched the tragedy unfold in real time from home, more than 1,000 miles away.
The 39-year-old shared a poignant message on the social media site Instagram, revealing her most intimate fertility struggles before her twins arrived in February 2017.
“The juxtaposition of college kids going nuts behind our set, while I was losing a baby on it, was surreal," she wrote. "I was scared, nobody knew I was pregnant, so I did the show while having a miscarriage. On television. My husband had to watch this unfold from more than a thousand miles away, texting me hospital options during commercial breaks.
“It would get worse. Two more failed pregnancies. More than once, I'd have surgery one day and be on SportsCenter the next so as not to draw attention to my situation. We then went down the IVF road of endless shots and procedures.”
The IVF was successful with both eggs implanted resulting in pregnancy. However the couple were too scared to announce their happy news because of their past experiences.
“We knew better than to celebrate. So I spent a third straight football season pregnant, strategically picking out clothes and standing at certain angles, using scripts to hide my stomach. There would be no baby announcement, no shower, we didn't buy a single thing in preparation for the babies, because I wasn't sure they'd show up,” she wrote.
“We told very few people we were pregnant, and almost no one there were two. For those that thought I was weirdly quiet about my pregnancy, now you know why. For as long as I can remember I hosted Sportscenter on Mother's Day, and the last couple years doing that have been personally brutal.”
Ms Walsh was made redundant from ESPN earlier in the month, as she prepared to return from maternity leave, which meant that yesterday, which was Mothering Sunday in the US, Ms Walsh was able to spend the day with her family.
“I wasn't on TV today, and I'm not sure when I will be again, but instead I got to hang with these two good eggs. My ONLY good eggs. And I know how lucky I really am,” she said.
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