Everything had been going fine. Then, in the 23rd week of her pregnancy, Marina went in for an ultrasound of her daughter only to find out something had gone terribly wrong — she had miscarried her baby girl. Marina was understandably devastated. “It broke me. I was in labor for 24 hours until she was born. She was 10 inches long, and was born at 11:25 pm. She was so perfect… so beautiful.” Marina shared her heartbreaking story with Live Action News, writing:
I woke up March 2, 2018, to go to my regular appointment. I was almost 24 weeks. My doctor put the machine to have my four-year-old daughter listen to the heartbeat. But there was no heartbeat. She looked and looked for 30 minutes, then did an emergency ultrasound and [my baby] was gone.
Vhanni Camille Lopez (screenshots courtesy of video from her mother, Marina)
“There still is no explanation as to why her heartbeat stopped. Doctors aren’t able to give me an answer. But I wanted to share my daughter, Vhanni Camille Lopez’s story. She’s such a beautiful soul.”
Vhanni Camille
“If I’d have the chance to go back and fix this, I would,” Marina said. “What wouldn’t I give for my baby to be here…. I had the same thing happen to me back in November 2013, but I was 15 weeks.” Sadly, Marina is not alone in her feelings. Women who experience miscarriage frequently deal with grief and guilt, wondering if they could have somehow prevented the loss of their babies. And all too often, their feelings of loss are minimized by people around them who aren’t sensitive to the fact that this was a very real life, a very real child that was lost.
“It broke me completely the day I buried her,” Marina said.
READ: How women’s stories of miscarriage made people pro-life in 2017
Marina and her daughter, Vhanni Camille (photo courtesy of Marina)
“I’ve always been against abortion because there’s people out there that desire a baby and can’t have any,” Marina wrote. “I have my four-year-old daughter and she’s everything,” she added, noting that her daughter was a “rainbow baby,” who was born after her Marina’s first pregnancy loss.
The National Catholic Register notes that miscarriage is unfortunately quite common: “According to the American Pregnancy Association, 10% to 25% of clinically recognized pregnancies result in miscarriage.”
If you have miscarried a baby and need support, click here.
