33-year-old Hollyoaks actress Jorgie Porter was over the moon to discover that she had fallen pregnant naturally with quadruplets earlier this summer, only to discover that all four of her babies had died at 14-weeks.
In a raw and powerful interview with Fabulous Magazine, Jorgie recalls the wonderful moment she found out that she and her property developer boyfriend, Ollie Piotrowski, were about to be parents.
“I did a pregnancy test and when it came up positive, Ollie and I were knocked for six. We ended up doing four tests in one night to be absolutely sure – we even drove to Tesco at midnight to buy one!” Jorgie told the publication.
As Jorgie’s mum is a twin, and with twins also existing on Ollie’s side, the pair decided to book in for a private pregnancy scan at six weeks, to see if they were also going to have twins.
“Then on the screen we could see three little dots, which she said were three sacs. I thought: ‘Oh my goodness, we’re having triplets!’”
The couple were then sent for an urgent appointment at Royal Bolton Hospital, where they were told that there were four embryos. “We were thrown into the air. My first words were: ‘I’m too little to have four!’ And Ollie was like: ‘Four? Four?!’ Our lives passed before our eyes.”
“My first feeling was excitement. I wasn’t thinking about the practicalities of raising four – I just started visualising our own mini football team or girl band. Then I started panicking, thinking things like: ‘I don’t have four boobs, how will I breastfeed them all?’ It was an emotional blur.”
Unfortunately Jorgie’s excitement only lasted another few weeks, as her 14-week scan showed that she had experienced a missed miscarriage, losing all four of her babies.
“It didn’t make sense,” Jorgie said, adding that she hadn’t had any signs that things weren’t OK. “No pain or bleeding, I was getting bigger, my boobs were growing, I had so much hair on my body and I still felt pregnant.”
“When the consultant performed the scan then said: ‘You’ve miscarried,’ I was in total shock,” Jorgie recalled.
After going in for a procedure to have her uterus cleared, Jorgie was given four tiny teddy bears, “One for each baby lost,” she said.
Opening up about the pain and grief which followed this heartbreaking experience, Jorgie said, “I’ve tried to come to terms with it by thinking: ‘They’ve never lived, I don’t know them,’ but it took Ollie to say to me: ‘You held them in you for three months,’ to appreciate the power of those emotions.”
Jorgie has decided to share her miscarriage story in an effort to normalise something which is still unjustifiably considered ‘taboo’. “By speaking out, it’s a way of coping and helping other women realise that they’re not alone,” Jorgie said, adding, “Since it happened, a couple of women at work have had miscarriages and I’ve taken them aside and gone: ‘Me too. I get it.’ It’s OK to talk.”
If you have suffered a miscarriage and are seeking resources or someone to talk to, please reach out to Miscarriage Ireland on 087 9239217(10am-12pm) or 086 2672519 (8pm-10pm), or free phone the Samaritans on 116 123.
