Hallmark Star Ashley Williams Speaks Out About Her Heartbreaking Miscarriage
Ashley Williams is known for her work in light-hearted movies on the Hallmark Channel. But the star of Christmas in Evergreen and the new Northern Lights of Christmas isn't afraid to address heavier issues as well-and that includes the miscarriage that ended her second pregnancy years ago.
"I'm not very good at keeping secrets," she tells Country Living during our visit to the set of Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa. "When I went through that I was just so surprised by how much secrecy I found in our culture surrounding it. It didn't make sense to me, so I wanted to write about it."
Ashley, who is now mom to not only firstborn Gus, 3, but also Odie, 1, penned a personal, firsthand account of her miscarriage on Medium. "The response I got was overwhelming-the amount of women who were relieved and inspired. It's so common and we need to talk about it," she says, adding with a laugh, "but it was mostly that I just can't keep my mouth shut."
The actress's other profession as a certified birth doula probably played a part in her decision to speak out as well. Ashley says she was inspired to pursue that path after witnessing her sister, fellow Hallmark star Kimberly Williams's, first labor.
"I was completely unprepared for what happened and I'm so protective of my sister that when she was in pain, I just wanted to scoop her up and run out of there," Ashley recalls of Kimberly's oldest son's birth. "I had all these irrational thoughts just seeing her in pain and being so sad for her and wanting to save her."
She left the experience thinking she'd never have children, but her husband, producer Neal Dodson, encouraged her to educate herself. Soon, she was signing up for a course and apprenticing with Los Angeles-based doula Tracy Hartley.
To date, Ashley has attended 52 births and had two children of her own, "unmedicated-which I will never do again," she says, laughing.
For a while, she also volunteered at a hospital in Bangladesh, where she taught women about health issues and established a hand-washing policy in the facility that continues today.
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