On Wednesday September 30, cookbook author and model Chrissy Teigen shared the shocking news of the loss of her son due to pregnancy complications. Teigen, 34, had announced her third pregnancy with her husband, John Legend, 41, while featuring in his music video for Wild on August 13, 2020. 

Teigen has been vocal about her pregnancy and fertility experience in the past, speaking about her postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter Luna, 4, and the in-vitro fertilization treatments she underwent to conceive her son Miles, 2. She also documented the complications accompanying her latest pregnancy on her Instagram stories, saying she was bleeding heavily for the past month as a result of her weakened placenta. Consequently, Teigen spent weeks on mandatory bedrest and continued to chronicle her dinners and work from bed. On Sunday evening, she revealed that she was in the hospital to receive blood transfusions due to her blood loss, but reassured her followers that her baby is “so wonderful and just the strongest little dude.”

On Wednesday night, Teigen posted a series of heartbreaking black-and-white pictures. In a caption, Teigen said“We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we’ve never felt before.” Teigen also said that “every day can’t be full of sunshine. On this darkest of days, we will grieve, we will cry our eyes out. But we will hug and love each other harder and get through it.”

Pregnancy loss is not uncommon, especially in comparison to how rarely it is mentioned in society and media. According to Mayo Clinic, ten to twenty percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage.

Due to urbanization, people are reproducing later, which decreases the birth rate and leads to higher-risk pregnancies. While the chance of miscarriage can be affected by chronic conditions, previous miscarriages, and hormonal changes, the increased age of either partner is one of its main risk factors. At age 35, there is a 20% chance of miscarriage and at 40, it doubles. 

Teigen is a high-profile celebrity with access to the best of medicine, but that is not the case for middle-class and poor individuals suffering from fertility issues. Her loss shines a light on the devastation of pregnancy loss and restarts a decades-long conversation not only among her peers, but the millions of people who look up to her.