Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson recently shared her and her husband’s heartbreaking story of pregnancy and miscarriage to raise awareness.
Shawn Johnson rose to fame as an Olympic gymnast. In 2008, she won the gold medal for balance beam, as well as silver medals for all-around, floor exercises, and team.
In a video posted to her YouTube channel on Oct. 21, Johnson and her husband, Andrew East, shared their story of miscarriage in an effort to help others going through similar struggles.
The caption for the video sums up what the couple was going through:
“The past 48 hours have been some of the happiest, scariest, and saddest times of my life. My husband Andrew and I found out that we were unexpectedly pregnant, only to find out hours later some tragic news. I have been crying more than I ever have, but am still optimistic for what is next. Thanks to our fans, friends, and family and Dr Goldberg for all the love and support.”
Although the video is 20 minutes long, it is definitely worth watching thanks to the insight it provides into what it can be like to deal with tragedy in pregnancy, even an unexpected one.
The video starts out with a warning after Shawn and Andrew welcome viewers to their channel. Shawn warns:
“Today’s video is a little bit sensitive. It’s not the happiest video. But we feel like a lot of people go through this, so we wanted to share it.”
Andrew adds:
“Know you’re not the only one going through whatever you are going through.”
From there, we get to follow Shawn and Andrew on their short pregnancy journey.
First, we see the pregnancy tests and Shawn recording a very emotional short video where she says, “So, I’m pregnant,” and holds up the test. She is crying tears of joy in this clip, as they are so excited to be parents.
She explains:
“Definitely wasn’t planning this, but it’s really, really exciting.”
She also wonders how she’s going to share the news with Andrew. In the next clip, Shawn explains that she’s been “bawling like crazy” because of various emotions.
“I’m confused, I’m straight up terrified, uh, overwhelmed, tired, hungry.”
Shawn then takes the time to explain how everything happened. At the time of the video, she was in New York on a press tour. She was packing her bags, and Andrew was helping her. She had a pregnancy test and took it because she’d been feeling off. The test came out positive.
Shawn still didn’t tell Andrew because she wanted to be sure first. Once she got to New York, she did a half day of press, then bought every “brand and type of pregnancy test” she could think of. They all came out positive. In this part of the video, she explains that she wants her husband with her so she can tell him.
Next, we get to see Andrew thinking about the possibility of pregnancy.
Andrew wasn’t in Los Angeles, but Shawn was insisting that he go back to LA so she could give or tell him a surprise. He, unsurprisingly, wondered if it could be a pregnancy. Although Andrew says, “It would be crazy” for them to have a kid right then, he was excited and “would love to have a kid.”
Once both are home in LA, Andrew opens one of the packages waiting there, finding baby shoes and confirming his hunch. Shawn, Andrew, and their dog are all emotional and hugging. Even the dog can tell something exciting happened.
Then, Shawn developed stomach pains and bleeding.
This happened the morning after she told Andrew about the pregnancy. The couple was worried and tried to stay calm. They went to the doctor and were trying to prepare for the worst.
“It sounds like it can either be something normal or that we lost the baby.”
At this point, Andrew commends Shawn for her bravery for sharing this. They even continue recording while in the doctor’s office. Shawn admits that no matter the results, they are going to cry.
The doctor discovers that Shawn did miscarry, but her body took care of everything for her.
He gave them the option of working to conceive right away. He also makes sure to let Shawn know that she did absolutely nothing wrong to cause the miscarriage.
At the end of the video, Shawn explains that “it sucks” and although the couple was scared, they were excited. Hopefully, the two of them sharing their emotional story helps bring awareness to the miscarriages that occur every day.
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