No one is immune

If there is one thing that irks me more than the miracle baby story the media here seems so obsessed with it is the story of "celebrities" and their offspring.

The news is always full of them and while they deserve their happiness as much a the next person, most of the time it just makes me want to barf. I mean what makes them so special? They reproduced? So did I. Big deal. I think I have been feeling especially sensitive to these stories recently, after reading one too many schmaltzy stories about celebrity dads and their pregnant wives/babies/children on and around Father's Day, celebrated here last Sunday.

Just eats me up every time when I hear them speak about the joy, how much said babies changed their lives for the better, how it is the most amazing thing EVER, how they could never imagine life without them. Blah blah fucking blah. Turn page. Turn TV off. Snooze.

So last night watching the news, I was about to roll my eyes again when I heard a "Sydney-based rugby league player will miss tonight's final after rushing to his wife's bedside as she gave birth to.................... a stillborn baby". Stopped me dead in my tracks. And here I was thinking the newsreader was about to say "a healthy baby boy!" It is so rare you hear the words "stillborn baby" mentioned on the news, especially in the same sentence as a celebrity or sportsperson.

There had just been a story a few days earlier about an AFL player who had asked his wife to induce their child two weeks early, so the baby could be born before the finals, and not too close to any big game. Serious eye rolling going on there, I mean how deluded do these people have to be? But then, you don't know what you don't know. You don't realise how utterly unimportant everything else is, including football, when you have held your dead child in your arms. But you know, of course their baby was fine. Baby girl, naturally. I'm not sure when the green-eyed monster in me will ever really die.

But this seemingly lovely NRL couple were happy to wait for their baby's big arrival day, even if it did clash with a big game, only to get the news we all dread at a check-up at the end of a pregnancy, but think we'll never hear - "sorry, there is no heartbeat, your baby has died".

Sometimes I think these celebrity/sportspeople types must be immune from this kind of pain and suffering. I mean tabloids and glossy mags are just littered with stories on them and their damn cute kids. But this just proves, it really can happen to anyone. Even big burly rugby players and their incredibly gorgeous wives.

What has impressed me in the wake of this young couple's shocking heartbreak was their ability to already try and make some "good" of the awful situation. Using their well-known, "celebrity" status, they have asked their many fans in lieu of sending flowers, to donate to the Stillbirth Foundation, our charity of choice in the wake of our daughter's untimely death.

While stillbirth is in my opinion, one of life's most horrific tragedies, I hope the untimely loss of their beautiful little baby boy can shed some desperately needed light on this all too silent topic in this country. More people need to know about the risks. More people need to know how just common this is. More people need to realise they are not immune.

My heart this weekend breaks for this couple, about to enter the happiest time of their lives with the birth of their first child, only to have it snatched away at the finish line, just like we did. I hope as this new, young mother entered the final stages of her labour, pushing out a child who would never draw breath, she felt the groundswell of support from the many women out there who have walked this road before her. I also hope they both realise, in time, that they are not alone and that their son wont ever be forgotten.