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'I had a miscarriage on live TV as my husband watched from home.'

A television presenter in the US has spoken about the heartache she faced while trying to fall pregnant, once having a miscarriage on set with her husband watching from a different state.

Now, 39-year-old Sara Walsh and her husband Matt Buschmann are the proud parents of twins, Hutton and Brees, who were born prematurely in February.

Parenthood was never a certainty.

“Finding a good egg didn’t come easy for me, and I suspect there are many people out there facing the same struggle,” Walsh posted to Instagram, alongside an image of herself and her babies both wearing ‘good egg’ onesies that were a gift from their grandmother.

My mother bought them these onesies because she thought they were funny. For us, they’re especially poignant. Finding a good egg didn’t come easy for me, and I suspect there are many people out there facing the same struggle. The road down a dark path began while hosting Sportscenter on the road from Alabama. I arrived in Tuscaloosa almost three months pregnant. I wouldn’t return the same way. The juxtaposition of college kids going nuts behind our set, while I was losing a baby on it, was surreal. I was scared, nobody knew I was pregnant, so I did the show while having a miscarriage. On television. My husband had to watch this unfold from more than a thousand miles away, texting me hospital options during commercial breaks. It would get worse. Two more failed pregnancies. More than once, I’d have surgery one day and be on SportsCenter the next so as not to draw attention to my situation. We then went down the IVF road of endless shots and procedures. After several rounds, we could only salvage two eggs. I refused to even use them for a long time, because I couldn’t bear the idea of all hope being gone. I blew off pregnancy tests, scared to know if it worked. It had. Times two. It was exciting news, but we knew better than to celebrate. So I spent a third straight football season pregnant, strategically picking out clothes and standing at certain angles, using scripts to hide my stomach. There would be no baby announcement, no shower, we didn’t buy a single thing in preparation for the babies, because I wasn’t sure they’d show up. We told very few people we were pregnant, and almost no one there were two. For those that thought I was weirdly quiet about my pregnancy, now you know why. For as long as I can remember I hosted Sportscenter on Mother’s Day, and the last couple years doing that have been personally brutal. An hours-long reminder of everything that had gone wrong. I wasn’t on tv today, and I’m not sure when I will be again, but instead I got to hang with these two good eggs. My ONLY good eggs. And I know how lucky I really am.

A post shared by Sara Walsh (@sarawalsh10) on

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“The road down a dark path began while hosting Sportscenter on the road from Alabama. I arrived in Tuscaloosa almost three months pregnant. I wouldn’t return the same way,” Walsh continued.

“I was scared, nobody knew I was pregnant, so I did the show while having a miscarriage. On television. My husband had to watch this unfold from more than a thousand miles away, texting me hospital options during commercial breaks.”

This was only the beginning. Walsh struggled though two more miscarriages and kept the entire ordeal private from her colleagues.

Listen: Libby Trickett shares her experience of miscarriage. Post continues below.

“More than once, I’d have surgery one day and be on SportsCenter the next so as not to draw attention to my situation. We then went down the IVF road of endless shots and procedures. After several rounds, we could only salvage two eggs.”

These were the two that became Hutton and Brees, but the pressure was unbelievable. “I refused to even use them for a long time, because I couldn’t bear the idea of all hope being gone.”

Most heartbreaking of all, however, was the way Walsh kept her pregnancy with the twins a secret throughout because she didn’t know if it could ever be real.

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“We knew better than to celebrate,” she posted to Instagram.

“So I spent a third straight football season pregnant, strategically picking out clothes and standing at certain angles, using scripts to hide my stomach. There would be no baby announcement, no shower, we didn’t buy a single thing in preparation for the babies, because I wasn’t sure they’d show up. We told very few people we were pregnant, and almost no one there were two.”

Now she has her two ‘good eggs’ as real life babies and couldn’t be happier. “[They’re] my ONLY good eggs. And I know how lucky I really am.”

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