Joanne Hynes has opened up about the pain of losing a baby.
The Irish designer has one son, and three daughters and she revealed that she lost a little girl at 39-weeks.
“I had a stillbirth on my second baby, also a girl. We called her Etain.
“I don’t really talk about it too much, but I think it can help other people. It’s such a horrific thing to happen, and it does happen to people, unfortunately. I was 39 weeks. It kind of broke the magic, the bubble. I mean, it broke me, it broke us, it broke a lot of things.”
Joanne explained that this has changed the way she looks at having children.
“My feeling now on pregnancy, it’s a very personal thing, is that it’s not as carefree as it was the first time.”
She also added that they keep the baby’s memory alive in various ways.
“Etain is with me every single day, and we talk about her daily. She is buried in Killoughter, Co Wicklow, not far from where we live.”
The designer also praised the work of charity Feileacain, which she says really helped her.
“It definitely does do something to you when you lose a baby. It does change your whole life. It was a huge thing to deal with. And I am still trying to deal with it. I dealt with Feileacain, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Association of Ireland,” she told the Independent.
“They are an absolutely incredible group of women who offer their time and services. Nobody asked me about it. It was like, I was pregnant, and then I wasn’t pregnant. I really needed to recognise it; I wanted to shout out “does anybody hear me?”. But it was difficult, because people are very uncomfortable.
“It’s still a very uncomfortable situation for people to even acknowledge it. So a lot of people didn’t say anything, which I understand. But it was very odd. That was October 2013, and I remember that winter, John and I just kind of staying in and it was very tough.”
We really admire Joanne for speaking out about the heartbreaking issue that affects so many women.
