Miscarriage led La Trisha Layne to form virtual support group that has attracted thousands

After years of trying, La Trisha Layne got pregnant and had just begun looking forward to motherhood when 12 weeks into her pregnancy she suffered a miscarriage and soon found that there was no support for the crippling grief she endured. Almost in a state of hopelessness, she took matters into her own hands and formed the Miscarriage and Pregnancy Loss Support Group.

That was in February and the group now has some 11,000 members who offer support, resource materials and other information to the many women who sometimes grieve in silence over the loss of an unborn child.

Layne, a 29-year-old registered nurse who is Guyanese but has been living in Barbados since she was a child, knows the need for support more than anyone else; two months after her first miscarriage she suffered a second one. She became pregnant for the third time shortly after, but her son did not make it to full term. Christopher Jnr was born prematurely and remains in a neonatal ward as he continues to receive round-the-clock care. During a zoom interview with Stabroek Weekend, Layne candidly shared her journey which was filled with pain and tears — joyful ones today as she watches her baby boy grow stronger with each passing day and hopes he will be home by the end of January.

Layne’s painful journey has opened the door to thousands of women around the world sharing and she hopes more people can understand how painful miscarriages are for women. She believes that this grief is often misunderstood as there is the belief that women can just move on and try again.

Suffered

Layne and her husband, Christopher, faced infertility for about three years as they were unsuccessful in becoming pregnant. But in December last year they found out that they were pregnant.

“For me, that was the most exciting day of my life because we had been trying for so long and after all these hurdles… this was to me a miracle. After being told it is not easy to get pregnant, you can’t get pregnant, to see that positive on that pregnancy test was the best day of my life,” Layne said.

The excited couple started to prepare for the life that would have changed their world. But on January 20, when she was just about 12 weeks pregnant, Layne suffered a miscarriage and she described it as the worst day of her life.

She was excited approaching the 12-week mark as she had been told that once she passed the first trimester, everything would be fine.

“For me to be so close and for that to happen, it completely broke me and it was a traumatic event because I was at work at the hospital when it happened…,” she recalled.

Layne said she was working at the hospital as normal when she felt a small pain that she initially thought was normal. She had seen her doctor a week earlier and had heard her baby’s heartbeat; everything was fine up to that point.

“On that fateful day, when I got to work I could not have imagined that something like that would have happened…,” she recalled.

The dull pain continued and she remembered going to her ward sister who also did not think it was serious and felt that maybe Layne’s uterus was putting pressure on her bladder. Layne was given two Panadol tablets. Later she realised she was spotting and grew worried as it did not seem normal.

“I remember that within the span of minutes, the pain started to intensify and the bleeding started to get worse…and I went back to my ward sister and told her I think something is wrong... as soon as I said that, I felt a gush of blood and after that I started what I didn’t know were contractions,” Layne said.