Samantha Busch opens up about infertility
Samantha Busch is an open book. The wife of NASCAR driver Kyle Busch is at nearly every NASCAR race her husband competes in, she thoroughly documents her life on social media (along with play-by-plays of Kyle's races) and she's one of the main cast members of CMT's reality show Racing Wives.
She's everywhere and discusses all aspects of her life, including her and Kyle's challenges with infertility and the heartbreaking miscarriage they had last year.
In a sport that can be petty, shallow and secretive at times, Samantha's honesty and bravery is not only refreshing, but it also helps normalize common experiences that are still often considered taboo.
The Busch family had their son, Brexton, in May of 2015 after undergoing in vitro fertilization treatments, during which they detailed the difficult process in public blog posts. Samantha explained: “Trying to have a baby was the hardest thing I've ever done in life. When I was 26, we decided that we wanted to start a family. You could handle one, two, three, four negative pregnancy tests. But by that ninth, 10th, 11th [one], that's when it's hard. It's hard to pick up the pieces again.
“We started the fertility drugs. They don't tell you too much about the side effects of them. You turn insane. Nobody's telling you what's happening to yourself as a woman and what's happening to your marriage. Nobody's telling you that you're going to sit on the floor and cry for hours and your husband's going to be there to support you, but at the same time, you're like, ‘What if I can't give him kids?'”
In an effort to comfort other couples facing the same challenges, they went a step further, sharing even more details about IVF as they went through it again last year to have a second child.
They posted intimate videos documenting the process, which included doctor appointments, shots, medicines and the mental health side of it. Samantha told For The
Win it was all so others “didn't feel so alone.”
They successfully got pregnant, but in a devastating video Samantha posted in November just after the end of the NASCAR Cup Series season, she told the world she had a miscarriage.
But she said they received “overwhelming support” from the NASCAR community and fans.
“When we unfortunately had to share about the miscarriage, it was just so helpful to hear from so many women who had been through the exact same thing and understood the emotion that I was feeling and the pain and the confusion,” Samantha said.
“They were able to help me process it because I was very overwhelmed, and it was these complete strangers who were able to help guide me through the first few weeks with Kyle and Brexton and family and friends.”
Though a difficult and deeply personal topic, she said it was therapeutic to speak openly about it.
And her experience is more prevalent than people think.
While many people have miscarriages before knowing they're pregnant, about 10 to 15 percent of those that do know they are pregnant have a miscarriage, according to March of Dimes.
Because problems related to infertility are so common, through the Kyle Busch Foundation, they launched the Bundle of Joy Fund to help people cover the costs of IVF, which can be thousands of dollars.
In 2017, Samantha also advocated for health insurance covering infertility: “If you break your leg, insurance covers it. Well, my ovaries are broken.”