A year after the stillbirth of her third child, Marina Fogle is talking about the experience to try to break the taboo surrounding the topic. The wife of presenter Ben Fogle, who has two other children Ludo, five, and Iona, four, has written a poignant article about the devastating loss that she suffered 33 weeks into her pregnancy.
Writing in the Times, Marina says: "When grief hits you out of the blue, crashing over you like a tidal wave, you learn a lot very quickly.... One of the most important things I learned was not to be afraid of the truth, however sensitive your audience."
Marina Fogle said grief taught her not to be scared of the truth
She goes on to describe telling Ludo, "with tears cascading down" her cheeks that his brother, whom the couple had already named Willem, had died. By not trying to gloss over her sadness, the mother was able to reassure her son that they would get through the situation as a family and crucially that she was perfectly fine.
It was in August 2014 that Marina was rushed to hospital suffering "acute placental abruption", meaning that her placenta had suddenly become detached from her uterus. She haemorraged and had an emergecy caesarean section. As Ben previously revealed, without immediate medical attention his wife could have been dead within 20 minutes.
Marina finished her article by saying that "one of the hardest things to come to terms with was the senselessness of my son's death".
She goes on: "If his death can give me a voice to talk about something people are afraid to talk about or give a pregnant woman the confidence to seek advice if she has any concerns or questions... then his death seems a little less pointless and that makes my pain a little easier to bear."