
This post deals with pregnancy loss and might be triggering for some readers.
For any woman who has dreamed of becoming a mother, there is a brief moment that we all share. A common point in time that unites us. A moment that we will always remember.
Those three minutes when you stand in your bathroom with the timer ticking away. Where you look at that pregnancy test in front of you, squinting.
You put it down and walk away, trying to distract yourself. Only to be led back in anticipation.
Watch: A tribute to the babies we've lost. Post continues below.
Your palms are sweaty. Could this be the one? The moment that changes your life forever?
Images of your pregnant belly flash before your eyes. You can almost feel the joy and magic of motherhood.
And when those two lines appear, everything stops for just a moment. The excitement and joy are like nothing you can describe. It feels like you’ve just jumped out of an aeroplane and you're free falling through the air. It’s exhilarating and you want to shout it from the rooftops. WE’RE PREGNANT!
This is the moment that unites us all, but also divides us.
For some, that feeling of excitement and joy is felt throughout your whole pregnancy. You start telling your friends and family amid excited screams and lots of jumping up and down.
You open up your search engine, researching baby equipment and immediately start ordering your baby furniture. And then you head to the hardware store to pick out the colours for your nursery.
Every doctor's appointment and scan is approached with happiness, and you share your growing baby bump on Instagram and Facebook. It’s perfect.
But for some of us, that feeling of excitement and joy is fleeting. For those of us who have been trying to conceive for a long time, suffering from infertility, or have previously endured a miscarriage or pregnancy loss, there is another moment that occurs.
In my personal experience, it was a week before the switch happened. After almost seven years of struggling with infertility, nine IVF cycles and two miscarriages, it took a week for the excitement and joy to be replaced by fear and anxiety.