Emelta Moyo narrated her story to The Weight She Carries.
Grief does not quickly go away. It took me some time to accept that I had indeed lost my first child. It really pains me to this day when I look at the scar which now remains a painful reminder of my loss. I got married in December 2019, and a few months later we found out we were pregnant. Both my husband and I were very excited about the new addition to the family.
About two months into the pregnancy, I noticed spots of blood on my underwear and went to a hospital, where I was informed that the heartbeat was felt and that everything was fine. The pain persisted, and this time walking was difficult.
We went to a private doctor who performed a scan and informed us that the baby’s heartbeat had stopped. He performed the procedure to clean out my womb, but still the pain persisted until two more scans revealed that I had had a rare type of ectopic pregnancy. Baby had started decomposing, so an emergency procedure was required to clean out my womb; plus, there was sepsis too, which had begun to affect other organs. Baby had settled between the rectum and womb; medically it’s called a ‘pouch of Douglas.’
The doctor who performed the surgery said I was fortunate that the fetus had not settled in one of the fallopian tubes, which would have been detrimental to future plans of having children. We had exhausted all our savings and had no funds for the procedure at that moment. I managed to sell my sewing machine to help with the bills. It was a very trying time for us. I was in so much pain.
People came together in prayer for me, including the nurses at the hospital. Prayer helped me a lot through everything. One day as I was looking out the window at the hospital, I saw trees swinging in a worship motion and said to myself, ‘If trees could worship, why can’t l?’
Despite everything that has happened, I am positive that this time around, whenever I get pregnant, I will carry my baby to full term.
My advice to pregnant women out there is that one should seek medical attention once they know they are pregnant and if there is a problem to seek more than one opinion to avoid loss.
This is really the first time I have openly spoken about what happened to me, and I hope that someone will find comfort by me sharing my story.
My hope lies in the faith I have in God that everything will be okay.
