Love & loss

BEING PREGNANT DURING a pandemic felt strangely optimistic. While there was great heartache and devastation happening in the world around us as well as the uncertainty of preparing to give birth amid exhausted hospitals and unpredictable lockdown restrictions, our bubble felt warm. If 2020 was the year everyone wished to be over, my husband and I reframed it as the year our family would grow after years of losses.

Following two previous miscarriages, the notion that this new pregnancy – identical twins! – may finally result in healthy babies began to feel real. The 20-week anatomy scan returned a comforting ‘normal’ and ‘healthy’ in an email from our obstetrician, and I allowed the cautious cloud that loomed over my third pregnancy to lift: I made parental