There’s literally no escaping it. The news is everywhere. There are follow up stories, features, in-depth analysis, write ups, opinions, photographs…….we have a Princess! Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana arrived this week and the news was greeted with great joy around the world. Well almost.
As a royalist all my life, I was excited to find out whether it was a boy or a girl and delighted to see William tenderly kiss the head of the baby Prince George, now newly promoted to the role of big brother. He’s been hidden from cameras but has clearly grown up, walking now, pointing and becoming a proper little boy yet still Daddy’s baby boy. No time has seemingly passed for Kate or Will to start to notice how quickly he is growing, how the age gap is widening or wondering what sort of big brother he would be.
This fact won’t have escaped the thousands of families out there who are doing just that with their own children. Wondering if they will ever be able to give them a sibling, counting the passing months with the arrival of each period as the gap between any would be brother or sister gets bigger and bigger. Facebook groups for Secondary Infertility were literally littered with women hurting from this news.
It’s not that they wish Kate ill for having a baby so quickly after George (or for looking so amazing just 10 hours after having a baby lol!) and it’s definitely not that they wish Kate had had to struggle in the way they are.
It’s just wish they were in her shoes (nude Jimmy Choos btw) and were finally celebrating a sibling.
It’s a gut wrenching anxiety that they cannot control that makes them feel so exasperated that they have no control over the outcome of their situation. They simply can’t give a sibling to their child at the moment. When others seem to pop them out all around them, the truth that they are seemingly unable to do what is so natural is torture.
It’s the fact that news of a royal sibling will undoubtedly prompt friends and relatives to start asking when they will be knocking out another.
It’s the way that whichever way they turn they simply cannot escape the news that there is a brother or sister for George. Nappy ads on TV, bubble bath ads on social media, newspapers, magazines everyone talking about it…even the flippin Royal Navy did their own photo on Facebook to celebrate. There’s simply no escape.
It’s the fact that thoughts and feelings are regularly entering their heads and hearts and they hate themselves for it. Dark thoughts, feelings of jealousy, anger, deep envy and frustration. They aren’t nasty people, don’t normally have such dark thoughts but such is the pain they can’t stop them and they hate that fact.
It’s the tears that have come, uncontrollably, without warning and with no specific trigger. They just fall, silent warm tears, mourning a child that doesn’t exist yet, prompted by a child someone else has been able to bring into the world. It’s the release valve that they have, letting out some of the frustration, in big, wet tears that spill out when they least expect.
And above all, when they are trying their best to get their head down, get on with life, act normal and be positive, this is just another huge reminder of the battle they face. The fight they feel like they are losing and how they feel they are letting their child down. The feelings never leave them but sometimes life is bearable and they can get on with it, momentarily forget the pain and move on. This week, they haven’t been able to.
So if you are currently feeling lost in a world that is moving on with new babies, whilst you struggle with Secondary Infertility take heart knowing that someone understands how you feel, cut yourself some slack and forgive yourself for feeling the way you do this week and more than anything, realise that you are not alone. #bestrong
