My name is Natasha and I had a miscarriage 2 months ago at 9 weeks pregnant to the day. It was completely unexpected after a perfectly healthy and normal first pregnancy and natural birth.
It was a very traumatic experience and we were in and out of hospital for 3 days while I passed our baby. I had multiple invasive ultrasounds, blood tests, physical examinations and different doctors.
I cried to my husband, I told him over and over that ‘I just want my baby back.’ I couldn’t eat, sleep or parent our toddler. I literally cried and begged to every doctor that we had, to help me figure out why it happened and I asked so many times if there were any tests we could do. They all said there was nothing they could do, ‘it just happens sometimes’ and ‘it’s unfortunate, but 1 in 4 women have a miscarriage, we don’t know why’
I had the kindest ultrasound technician for a formal scan and she told me that no doctor would look into a miscarriage until you have 3 in a row. I was shocked.
As far as a miscarriage goes, mine went as smoothly and naturally as possible, but the doctor still offered to give me a D&C and a pill to ‘flush it out.’ I immediately said no, we went home and I miscarried naturally over the next week, all the while grieving my baby and crippled with pain.
Every spare minute I had was spent researching things that could cause miscarriages, and that might have caused mine. I asked dozens of questions on every holistic Facebook page, and eventually I found a naturopath that specialises in pregnancy and fertility that offered to help. I am a big believer in preventative care and getting to the root cause of things, and I wasn’t going to go through the trauma 3 times before I found any results.
I travelled an hour to see her. In the first appointment I cried to her for help and relayed everything that happened. She sent me home with genetic and microbiome test referrals, blood test forms and a bunch of herbal supplements to get me started. She was the first person to listen and tell me that we would find out what happened.
One month after my miscarriage, and a bunch of functional testing later, my naturopath told me I have two MTHFR mutations and a genetic disorder called Hemochromatosis, which is where your body stores excess iron in different organs because it can’t process it normally. These two things alone can cause fertility issues, but together when out of balance is a recipe for disaster and this is likely the cause of losing our baby.
Last year, I asked a doctor to test me for MTHFR as part of my pre-conception planning, and he denied me because there was no cause for concern. I wanted to get tested because we had just gone through the traumatic procedure of getting my baby’s tongue tie released and ties are a common symptom of MTHFR. It’s a simple $75 blood test. The doctor I had to see to get my iron level results from said it was a ‘little high but wouldn’t cause a miscarriage.’ The first thing that comes up on Google when you search Hemochromatosis and fertility is that it can cause recurrent miscarriages through embrytoxicity.
One week after my miscarriage and once I’d seen my naturopath, I completely changed my diet and lifestyle. I stopped eating dairy, gluten and all sugar (including unrefined), and I started dry brushing again, having daily juices, detox baths and daily coffee enemas.
I found coffee enemas through a friend and thought I would try it myself to see what would happen! For the first week I couldn’t hold it for more than 3-5 minutes, which is a big sign of high toxic load. Gradually I built up to holding for 15 minutes and added in the tumerical blend to my routine to help further with inflammation. I’ve been doing them every day (sometimes twice a day) for nearly 2 months. The first three days I released dozens (looked like hundreds) of tiny gallstones and I’ve since released dozens of parasites. I lost 5-7kg, which I suspect was mostly inflammation. My skin is glowing, there are no bumps or acne. My endometriosis abdominal pain has disappeared, I no longer have IBS symptoms, and I have my period back for the first time since having my son 2 years ago.
I have been completely let down by the medical system again. Had I not pushed for answers and pursued my own investigation with a naturopath, I probably would have had a second miscarriage because my body would still be highly unbalanced and still in a toxic state.
I’m now doing a lot of work to heal my body before we try again and coffee enemas have been one of the biggest things to help physically and detox! I’m currently doing a 6 week gut cleanse and will be continuing with coffee enemas and colonics until we’re pregnant again! I’m also donating blood to reduce my iron levels, and I’m in the process of seeing a homeopath to help with the trauma that’s now just resurfacing.
I’ve talked about my miscarriage, my thoughts, my trauma, and my journey to finding out what happened on my IG regularly since it happened. I’ve had dozens of women talk to me about their struggle with fertility and it’s absolutely heartbreaking. There is so much stigma around miscarriages and talking about them. So many women feel their own miscarriages are invalid because of how far along they were, but a baby is a baby and it’s a loss no matter the ‘week.’ That’s why I’m sharing my story with you, and why I’ll continue to talk about it and my healing journey to anyone that will listen!
I decided to take back my fertility myself, because I’m not waiting until I lose three babies for a doctor to finally listen.
