Hilaria Baldwin Opens Up About 'Likely' Miscarriage In Heartbreaking Post
Hilaria Baldwin is sparking conversation about the “secrecy” of the early stages of pregnancy with a heartbreaking and impactful Instagram post.
On Thursday, the yoga instructor, who is married to actor Alec Baldwin, posted a photo of herself and shared in the caption that she is “most likely” having a miscarriage.
“So, this is what is going on now: the embryo has a heartbeat, but it isn’t strong, and the baby isn’t growing very much,” she wrote. “So we wait ― and this is hard. So much uncertainty...but the chances are very, very small that this is a viable pregnancy. I have complete confidence that my family and I will get through this, even if the journey is difficult.”
Baldwin, a wellness influencer who has four children with her husband, wrote that she shared her personal story even though it wasn’t as “positive and shiny as the rest” of her posts because she wanted to keep her fans in the know and shed light on the “secrecy during the first trimester.”
“This works for some, but I personally find it to be exhausting,” she wrote. “I’m nauseous, tired, my body is changing. And I have to pretend that everything is just fine ― and it truly isn’t. I don’t want to have to pretend anymore. I hope you understand.”
She assured fans that she was neither ashamed nor embarrassed by the experience. She said she hopes her post contributes to dismantling the stigma surrounding miscarriage and the early stages of pregnancy.
As HuffPost senior reporter Catherine Pearson has pointed out, 10 percent to 25 percent of known pregnancies end in a miscarriage.
Many of Baldwin’s fans commented on the post, sharing their own miscarriage experiences and thanking her for being open.
Her Instagram usually features videos of exercise and yoga tips, and she often shares pics of her kids, along with updates on her motherhood journey.
Last year, she posted a photo that showed her the morning after welcoming her son Romeo, saying she wanted to “normalize the postpartum figure.”
“We all come in different shapes, sizes, and health experiences...but given the right love and care, we can feel really good within our skin,” she wrote. “We just have to be patient and kind with our bodies.”
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P!nk
"I didn't want to talk about it because I was just really nervous, and I have had a miscarriage before," she said.
Gwyneth Paltrow
Discussing her children's requests for a new baby sibling, the actress said, "I had a really bad experience when I was pregnant with my third. It didn’t work out and I nearly died. So I am like, 'Are we good here or should we go back and try again?'"
Beyoncé
That same year, she explained why she chose to share her story during an interview with Oprah. "There are so many couples that go through that and it was a big part of my story," Beyoncé said. "It's one of the reasons I did not share I was pregnant the second time, because you don't know what's going to happen. And that was hard, because all of my family and my friends knew and we celebrated. It was hard."
Courteney Cox
That same year, Cox told NBC News that her struggles sometimes made it very challenging to do her job and make people laugh. "I remember one time I just had a miscarriage and Rachel was giving birth," she said. "It was like that same time. Oh my God, it was terrible having to be funny."
Nicole Kidman
"From the minute Tom and I were married, I wanted to have babies," she said. "And we lost a baby early on, so that was really very traumatic. And that's when we would adopt Bella."
Kathie Lee Gifford
![In 1992, Kathie Lee Gifford told her audience on “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee” that she had recently lost a baby.<br /><br />"Until you experience [a miscarriage] yourself, you really don't understand the heartbreak of it," <a href="http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20108993,00.html">she said</a>.](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/fGrxFmSsc5DfdNuC0csviw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MA--/https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5633ab7f1c000077005710ba.jpg)
"Until you experience [a miscarriage] yourself, you really don't understand the heartbreak of it," she said.
Mariah Carey
"It kind of shook us both and took us to a place that was really dark and difficult," she said.
Ashley Williams
The actress shared the details of her experience and urged other women who have been through the same thing to feel more comfortable talking about it.
“Why don’t we talk about it?" she wrote. "Why was I feeling embarrassed, broken, like a walking wound?”
Céline Dion
The singer said she had been pregnant for a few days, but "it didn't stay." In an interview with Oprah, the singer maintained a positive attitude about the experience. "It’s life, you know? A lot of people go through this. We tried four times to have a child. We’re still trying. We’re on the fifth try, and I’ll tell you, if five is my lucky number, this fifth try has got to come in."
Jaime King
Lisa Ling
![<a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20448253,00.html">During a 2010 episode of "The View,"</a> Lisa Ling spoke about her first pregnancy, which ended in miscarriage. "I felt more like a failure than I'd felt in a very long time," she said. <br /><br />"We actually [hadn't] been trying that long," she added. "I don't know that I took it as seriously as I should have because it happened so fast. But then when I heard the doctor say there was no heartbeat it was like bam, like a knife through the heart."](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/QVhH9_SfUfMQ7A7D_HjO_Q--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MA--/https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5633bd4b1c00006f005710e9.jpg)
"We actually [hadn't] been trying that long," she added. "I don't know that I took it as seriously as I should have because it happened so fast. But then when I heard the doctor say there was no heartbeat it was like bam, like a knife through the heart."
Brooke Shields
In a 2003 interview with People, the actress reflected on the experience. "We were crushed. Up till then, I thought simply because it was time and I wanted to have a baby, it would work."
Whitney Houston
"It was very painful, emotionally and physically," Houston said. "I was back on the set the next day. And it's over. But I had Bobbi Kristina one year later, and I am blessed."
Kirstie Alley
"When the baby was gone, I just didn’t really get over it. Neither did my body," she wrote. "I so thoroughly convinced my body that it was still pregnant after nine months that I had milk coming from my breasts. I was still fat, I was still grieving, and I had just been told it was very possible I would never be able to have children. Fat, childless, with little hope for any future children ... that’s when I began to get fat."
Joan Rivers
“I wish I had had 10 children,” Rivers said. “After Missy, I had two miscarriages and a tubular pregnancy. Not having more is my only regret in life. We were going to adopt, and then Edgar changed his mind. I worry now because there’s nobody for Missy. When the chips are down, the only one who will take you in is a relative.”
Tori Amos
"You question what is fair, you get angry with the spirit for not wanting to come, you keep asking why," she added. "And then, as I was going through the anger and the sorrow and the why, the songs started to come."
Giuliana Rancic
The talk show host said she wanted to share her fertility struggles with others. "Hopefully we can help people understand that there's nothing to be ashamed of," she said. "It's such a taboo subject, but it's a very common problem."
Wendy Williams
“I suffered several miscarriages including two at five months," the talk show host said in the 2015 special. "That’s when you have the clothes already picked out, the nursery is already painted. They ask you do you want a funeral or do you want the cremation.”
Williams, who has one son, added, “We went through that not once but twice, me and my husband. So our Kevin is a hard-won child. I would’ve loved to have had more children but I don’t want to test my blessing.”
Jane Seymour
"I actually lost a pregnancy live on television, announcing the Rose Parade, but nobody knew at the time," she said.
Eva Amurri Martino
"I am sharing in the hopes that we can be a light for people going through similar circumstances, and to remind myself and others that there is no shame in voicing our heartbreaks and allowing others to comfort us," she wrote.
"What was so shocking to me is how common miscarriages are, versus how little I hear them talked about," she continued. "I'm not sure if this is because people are ashamed to suffer this loss, or whether the loss is simply too painful to share (I can see how this could be the case also)."
Christie Brinkley
"But after the second one, it was really devastating. Four months is a lot of living with that little life in you -- thinking about it, eating right for it, nurturing it and all of a sudden, it dies."
Lela Rochon
She added, "I know everybody’s situation is different, but I also think you never truly get over that kind of loss and you never trust your body again until you see a healthy child come. When my daughter came and she was healthy and happy, it made everything okay.”
Ali Wong
"It really helped me when I had a miscarriage to talk to other women and hear that they’d been through it, too," she said. "It’s one thing to hear the statistics but it’s another to put faces to the numbers so you stop feeling like it’s your fault."
She added, "I think that’s one of the reasons women don’t tell people when they’ve had a miscarriage -- they think it’s their fault. I remember I worried what my in-laws would think, which is so crazy. I thought they’d think their son had married a terrible person."
Sophia Loren
Lily Allen
"It was a really long battle, and I think that kind of thing changes a person," Allen said of the experiences in her 2011 documentary.
The singer has also encouraged her fans to donate to Sands, an organization that supports families affected by infant loss and funds research to help prevent future occurrences.
Hillary Scott
"I also feel like there's this pressure that you're just supposed to be able to snap your fingers and continue to walk through life like it never happened," she said, adding that the experience made her a "different mom" to her daughter.
Barbara Walters
“I had had several miscarriages,” she told NBC's Jane Pauley in 2003. “And when I did, they were never reported. And I would take a couple of days off then, and go back to work."
Laura Benanti
"Everyone handles grief differently, and I am certainly not suggesting that all women run around telling people they had a miscarriage if that isn’t healing for them," she wrote. "What I am suggesting is that, if this is something that truly affects so many women and their partners (some statistics say 1 in 3 pregnancies, some say 1 in 5), then perhaps we need to encourage a cultural environment more conducive to empathetic understanding."
Sharon Stone
"The last time I lost the baby, I went into 36 hours of labor," she recalled. "While we were at the hospital, our adoption attorney called."
Valerie Bertinelli
"I'm still not over that one," she said, later adding, "It hurt so badly when I miscarried. I think about it often and get down."
Elisabetta Canalis
"I just want to say to all those women who are going through it to stay strong because life goes on and it is nobody's fault and nature acts in incomprehensible ways," she wrote. "We can only accept it ... We can't deny it, it's like an incessant sorrow you can't get rid of."
Mary Tyler Moore
"As we were preparing to do the series, a surprise pregnancy gave the promise of a huge event," she wrote. "So, Grant and I set about the fun of telling anyone who'd listen that we were embarking on a production of another sort. In about six weeks' time the promise was broken. This growing expression of us both ended in its beginning. And the loss took my heart with it as well."
Nell Carter
The actress and singer said she blamed her husband for the losses, “even though I knew it wasn’t his fault ... Eventually it led us to finalize our divorce.”
Bethenny Frankel
Frankel continued, "A few years ago a friend of mine told me she'd miscarried, and I remember saying, 'Oh God, that's terrible.' But I didn't really get it: how many feelings you cycle through in a matter of minutes. How depressing the process is, and how anticlimactic -- the exact opposite of having a baby."
Amy Brenneman
She added that the loss affected her relationship with her husband. "This miscarriage brought us very close, and we were grateful for what we had," she said.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
