A Listening Ear, A Lifeline

Rebecca’s Story of Repeated Baby Loss

“I don’t think I realised how much I needed someone just to listen,” she said. “The counsellors didn’t try to fix it. They didn’t rush me. They just let me be where I was.”

Life Helpline logo

If you or someone you know needs help:

woman in red coat walking in woods with sunlight through trees

After six miscarriages and no rainbow, Rebecca found solace in Life’s Helpline – a place she could come back to time and again when her grief surfaced.

The Joy of Expecting

When Rebecca first discovered she was pregnant, she was seven weeks along. “Everything was good,” she recalls. “We were happy, excited, anticipating all the changes that were coming.”

For five short weeks, Rebecca started to settle into her pregnancy. She bought baby books, quietly planned names, and allowed herself to imagine what the future would bring. But at 13 weeks, her world changed. “I’d only been a mum for five weeks,” she says softly. The loss of their baby was sudden and devastating.

Loss after loss

What followed was a long, painful journey of repeated heartbreak. Over the next two years, Rebecca experienced five more miscarriages. Each loss compounded the last. “Everything I wanted had been taken away,” she remembered.

Doctors eventually discovered what was causing the losses. When they explained the details, the words felt clinical, detached – they didn’t just state a diagnosis but carried the painful truth that Rebecca was very unlikely to be able to carry a pregnancy to viability. She was told there was nothing to be done.

Those words shattered any hope of having a baby in her arms. “I felt I got no support and no medical help,” she said. “It was like the world just moved on, and I was left behind with all the pain.”

We can only continue supporting women in their unexpected pregnancy journeys with your help. If you can spare anything at all, women, children and future generations all over the UK will benefit from your generosity today.

Life Helpline logo

If you or someone you know needs help:

Silence and distance

Rebecca’s emotions were complex and consuming. There was grief, of course, but also anger and guilt – a corrosive thought that maybe it was somehow her fault. Rebecca shared, “I felt like my husband blamed me too. Even though he never spoke about it, I knew there was a lot he couldn’t say.” Their losses became something unspoken, neither she nor her husband could find the words.  As others around them welcomed their babies, celebrated first steps, christenings and birthdays, Rebecca felt the distance with her husband grow which fed the intrusive thoughts that she was to blame.

For women like Rebecca, loss doesn’t follow a neat timeline. It resurfaces with anniversaries, due dates, and unexpected reminders, a baby announcement, a passing pram, a quiet moment alone. It was during these times that Rebecca reached out to Life’s Helpline.

Always there

She didn’t call every week, or even every month. She called when the grief felt too heavy to carry alone. Over the course of nearly two years Rebecca called multiple times. And each time she was met with compassion and care. Life Helpline became a real lifeline. It was always there when she needed someone to listen, to support her, and to walk beside her through her darkest days.

Life Helpline offers free, confidential, and compassionate support for anyone affected by baby loss. For Rebecca, that meant having a space where she could talk openly, and without needing to “move on” before she was ready.

“Grief isn’t the only emotion you have to navigate when you lose a baby,” says one of Life’s counsellors. “People often feel confusion, anger, guilt, hopelessness, sometimes all at once. It’s so important to have someone there who understands that loss doesn’t disappear just because time passes.”

For Rebecca, those conversations were lifelines. They were small moments of connection that helped her breathe again. “I don’t think I realised how much I needed someone just to listen,” she said. “The counsellors didn’t try to fix it. They didn’t rush me. They just let me be where I was.”

Grief over time

Today, Rebecca continues to live with her loss. For those who have lost a baby, grief doesn’t simply end, but life grows around it. There is hope, life will bring good days and even joy again as well as dark days that feel raw, and everything in between. At Life Helpline we understand that grief is always there. But so are we. No matter if you have suffered a recent loss or if it was decades ago – we are here for you. Your loss matters. You are not alone.

You are not alone

As we mark Baby Loss Awareness Week, stories like Rebecca’s remind us that every loss is real – and every parent deserves support. Behind every statistic is a person navigating heartbreak, trying to find a way forward while keeping their much-loved babies in their heart.

At Life, we’re here to listen, for as long as it takes. Will you be here for women like Rebecca?

More reading...

Rebecca's story of repeated baby loss
Lily's journey shows the power of being heard to calm fear and reveal the gift of an unexpected pregnancy, with three children already at home!
There’s a common conversation that women who are considering abortion are doing so because of a ‘culture of self’... if only it were that simple...
Is it time to ask ourselves some bigger questions? Are we designing childcare policies that truly prioritise the well-being of children and families?
Why we need an unexpected pregnancy helpline "There are still hundreds of thousands of people in the UK every year who are struggling with unexpected pregnancy issues and deserve access t…
"If we want to see more children being born in today’s increasingly hard world then the best way to do that is to look after the women with the wombs."…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Know how to help a woman facing unexpected pregnancy

THE 10 BARRIERS AND BRIDGES

Spread of pages from Bridges to Parenthood guide from Life charity UK

• Avoid conversation mistakes
• Be confident and compassionate
• Give authentic support