To mark Baby Loss Awareness Week 2021 beginning on 14 October, singer and presenter Myleene Klass is sharing the trauma of experiencing four miscarriages in three years in a special documentary, Myleene Klass: Miscarriage & Me,  for UKTV.

“I couldn’t even talk about it for the first year,” Klass says about the experience. “It’s just one word but it brought so much grief, fear, sadness and trauma.”

Miscarriage is the most common kind of pregnancy loss. Shockingly there are no official figures around miscarriage, but some estimates suggest there are around 250,000 every year in the UK. For Black women, there is a 40% increased risk of experiencing baby loss.

“I want to start a proper conversation about miscarriage,” the former Hearsay member states in the opening of the film. “I want to break the silence.”

The documentary sees Klass exploring her own trauma, revisiting the diary she kept during the time of her miscarriages, as well as meeting with other women who have experienced baby loss.

Klass first opened up about her experiences publicly in an Instagram post in 2020, writing: “I know after my own MC’s how I scoured the internet for stories similar to mine for peace, reassurance.I hope this helps even one lost soul.”

Speaking about the motivation for making the documentary, Klass said: “I want these conversations to be had so I’m not googling at midnight. I want my daughters to be able to watch that. I want my daughter’s friends to be able to have these conversations. If you’re gonna do something as honest as this then you have to tell the truth of what it’s actually like. And it’s pretty ugly and it leaves you so vulnerable.”

“I’ve been to war with my body,” Klass explains in one powerful moment. She described how falling pregnant after miscarriage was “terrifying” and filled her with “constant worry”.

She details how her third miscarriage happened while she was presenting her live radio show and how it affected her relationship with her fiancé, Sim. “I went home and I said ‘I’ve failed you again’,” she admits.

On the birth of her son in 2019 following her miscarriages, Klass spoke about how it “was all shiny on the outside but hell to get to” and how his birth “didn’t erase the pain of the other losses”.

Klass has two older daughters and describes herself in the film as “having three children but being a mum to seven”.

The documentary calls for more to be done to support those who have experienced miscarriage. 20% of women who have had one miscarriage experience the same levels of PTSD as former frontline soldiers and are four times more likely to attempt to take their own life.

Meeting with MP Olivia Blake, who herself has suffered miscarriage, Klass follows the campaign by leading baby loss charity Tommy’s which calls on the government to make urgent changes to women’s health strategy.

They demand a commitment to recording the number of miscarriages in the UK to set targets for reduction, making miscarriage treatment available 24/7 and increased funding for testing and preventative measures for women. 

“The pain and the impact has to be acknowledged,” Klass says. 

Myleene Klass: Miscarriage & Me will air on 14 October on W, a UKTV channel.

Images: Getty