Keira Rumble was told by doctors she was having a miscarriage. She knew it was something else.

This post deals with pregnancy loss.

Keira Rumble's picture-perfect Instagram feed with photos of her four-month-old daughter, Goldie, and two-year-old son, Hunter, doesn't immediately give away the heartache she went through to become a mum.

The successful founder of Krumbled Foods, Mini + Me and Habitual Beauty now has two gorgeous healthy children in her arms but has been through seven devastating losses in her bid to have a family.

Over the last few years, Keira has experienced multiple miscarriages, IVF treatment and an endometriosis diagnosis as well as a heterotopic pregnancy. This rare and complex condition occurs when a woman carries both a developing embryo inside the uterus and another embryo growing outside the uterus, often in a fallopian tube.

Aside from all the physical and emotional pain she has dealt with during her fertility journey, Keira says that one of the hardest aspects was her experience of medical misogyny.

In January 2019, after two previous miscarriages, Keira was cautiously happy to find out she was pregnant.

"Almost straight after finding out I was pregnant, something didn't feel right," Keira tells Mamamia.

"I was in the shopping centre with Anthony [Keira's husband] and I felt this really sharp pain in my left side and told him I think I needed to go to the hospital. He was initially quite taken aback as it was quite sudden but the pain was very different and specific to what I had experienced in my previous miscarriages and I knew something was wrong."

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Keira says on arriving at the hospital for the first time, she was quite clear in presenting to emergency doctors what she thought was happening based on her pain and her experience.

"I was quite strong-willed and told them I thought it was an ectopic pregnancy, a condition where the fertilised egg grows in the wrong place," Keira says.

"I based my theory on the specific shoulder tip pain I was feeling and the intensity and difference compared with my previous two miscarriages. I think my direct approach caught them off guard and while they did their due diligence by scanning me and doing blood tests, I was sent home while the pain continued to get worse."

A week later and the second time that Keira presented back in ED, she really felt as if no one was listening.

"I remember being told I was 'just having a miscarriage' and that I should take some Panadol and go home. Those words had such a huge impact and effect. If they had just slightly reframed the way they spoke to me, and asked how they could support me, it would have been a very different experience. 

"But as it was, I felt isolated. I felt like I should be ashamed of what was happening and that it was quite an insignificant thing to be going through. I was sent for a scan and they did some blood tests but all it showed was that yes, I was pregnant but my HCG levels were not rising, and so I was likely miscarrying."

After another week, Keira says her excruciating pain was by then, "more unbearable than childbirth". She went with Anthony and presented to the emergency department at 2am.

"I had been bleeding really, really heavily with clots. They made me sit in the waiting room while I was lightheaded and blood was soaking through multiple pads. I remember almost pleading and saying I knew it wasn't normal. This was not what I'd been through previously with a miscarriage and this was not what I'd experienced before. I really just wanted to be scanned as I knew something was very wrong."

The medical team again ignored Keira's belief she was experiencing an ectopic pregnancy, and said they thought her pain might be because of an STI. 

"I was distraught by this point but underwent all the testing just to make sure which of course came back clear."

Rather than talking to Keira directly, doctors addressed Anthony to tell him that his wife's response "was not normal". 

"They said to Anthony that I needed to go see a psychologist. And that this manifestation of pain was not normal. They told him I shouldn't be feeling the way I was. My situation was not deemed a 'significant enough emergency' for further investigation and they made me feel like the pain was imaginary and as if I simply couldn't cope.

"It makes me so angry looking back at it now as not only did they not offer any support or empathy, but I was in pain for four weeks thinking I needed to be taken to a psychiatric facility!"

Keira was given a referral for a scan for the next day which she acted on immediately as soon as the clinic opened later that morning.

"The girl doing the scan went silent and quickly went to fetch a colleague. When they both came into the room again, she said they had called the hospital and an ambulance. They said they could see a significant amount of fluid in the pelvic area which they assumed was blood. 

"When I arrived at the hospital, the difference in how I was treated now it was clearly a medical issue was astounding. It is disappointing that a miscarriage or even other more general gynaecological issues I have presented with, are not treated the same or as seriously as other medical issues. The language and the support just isn't there."

Keira with her two children in 2023. Image: Supplied.

Keira was diagnosed with a heterotopic pregnancy - a rare condition where at least two pregnancies are present simultaneously at different implantation sites with only one located in the uterine cavity. She had experienced a miscarriage and had a ruptured fallopian tube that because so much time had passed, required emergency surgery. 

The recovery lasted for four weeks and thankfully Keira was soon back to work and getting on with her life.

She was later diagnosed with endometriosis and a rare blood clotting condition as well as experiencing another two miscarriages before conceiving and birthing her son Hunter with the help of IVF in July 2021.

"I have these daily heart explosions just looking at my beautiful boy and holding him in my arms," Keira told Mamamia back in November 2021.

"All the heartache was worth it as the difficult chapter is closed and a beautiful new chapter of our lives as a family of three has begun."

Keira and Anthony welcomed their baby daughter, Goldie, in May 2023 and now Keira is lending her support to the Pink Elephants Miscarriage Rebellion campaign as part of October's pregnancy loss and awareness month.

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"I wish I had known about the work Pink Elephants provides for women going through pregnancy loss when I sat in that emergency department in 2019 feeling so isolated and alone.

"I think too that it wasn't as if I wanted the doctors to fix me, I knew I was experiencing a miscarriage but what I really wanted and needed was some human empathy and to be listened to. 

"I know emergency departments are overworked and stretched to capacity, but if someone had offered some kind words and told me about Pink Elephants Support Network, that would have been a step in the right direction and that is why I am telling my story."

October is Pregnancy Loss Awareness Month. If you have experienced pregnancy loss and need advice or support, contact Pink Elephants Support Network to find out how they can help you. 

To find out more about The Miscarriage Rebellion, the Pink Elephant Support advocacy movement, visit the campaign page of their website.

If this story has raised concerns for you, please consult a healthcare professional.

Feature Image: Instagram @krumble