Myleene Klass reveals she miscarried four times before having her 'rainbow baby' Apollo

Myleene Klass has emotionally revealed she is a ‘mama to seven babies’ after she miscarried four times, before having her ‘rainbow baby’ Apollo, 14 months.

The presenter, 42, took to Instagram on Thursday to share her experience on National Babyloss Miscarriage Day after Chrissy Teigen, who recently lost her baby Jack, gave ‘me the courage to write’.

Alongside two photos showing off her bump during her pregnancies, Myleene said: ‘I am Mama to 7 babies, Ava, Hero, Apollo my rainbow baby and 4 little stars in the sky.

Candid: Myleene Klass has emotionally revealed she is a ‘mama to seven babies’ after she miscarried four times before having her ‘rainbow baby’ Apollo, 14 months

‘I know after my own MC’s (miscarriages) how I scoured the internet for stories similar to mine for peace, reassurance.

‘I hope this helps even one lost soul.’

Myleene said she suffered her first miscarriage when she was at the airport, flying home for a dilation and curettage procedure, where doctors remove tissue from inside the uterus.

She explained: ‘I’d started bleeding heavily at 10wks on holiday. The scan was the saddest sight I’ve ever seen in my life. The first and last time I saw my baby.

Her story: Myleene said: ‘I am Mama to 7 babies, Ava, Hero, Apollo my rainbow baby and 4 little stars in the sky’ (pictured with her children and fiancé Simon Motson)

Devastating: The presenter, 42, took to Instagram to share her experience on National Babyloss Miscarriage Day and accompanied the post with pictures of when she was pregnant

Speaking out: The presenter, 42, took to Instagram to share her experience on National Babyloss Miscarriage Day

‘As the doctor pushed the camera on my belly, the familiar black and blue image of my baby sprung onto the screen, then started to sink and slowly floated down, til it just hunched over. I knew.

“I’m sorry there’s no heartbeat”.

Myleene said she was asked to confirm the procedure, but ‘cried so hard’, a nurse had to answer on her behalf.

Motherhood: The former HearSay singer said she ‘felt I’d failed my baby and my partner’ when she suffered her first miscarriage, before eventually falling pregnant with Apollo (pictured)

‘The feeling is nothing short of traumatic, shock,’ she said.

‘They taped my bracelet to my wrist, two gold swallows. It made me sob. Swallows love for life and always come home.

‘I told the anaesthetist to please make sure I wake up as I’m a mum then I cried again at what they were going to take out. I woke to emptiness and the horror of what had happened.

‘I felt I’d failed my baby and my partner.’

Putting on a brave face: The star explained how she injected herself with ‘countless, endless hormones into my belly to keep my placenta working’ while she was pregnant with Apollo

Myleene described her second miscarriage as ‘worse if that’s possible’. Feeling like she had her ‘1 in 4’ experience.

The former HearSay star said her baby stopped growing at ten weeks, but for reasons completely unrelated to her first miscarriage.

Reliving the trauma, Myleene said; ‘I didn’t take my eyes off the fire alarm on the ceiling, lest I break completely. Walking past the pregnant women in reception was torture.

‘This D&C was no less traumatic. In fact, the familiarity of it cut deeper.

‘The “wishes to dispose of the products of pregnancy” form, the walking to theatre, the ugly socks. Having everything one minute, a name, a school, then nothing.

Gorgeous family: Alongside Apollo, Myleene is proud mum to Ava, 12, Hero, eight, whom she shares with her ex-husband Graham Quinn

‘The third, I miscarried at work. The fourth,the loo. Whilst I could get pregnant, there was no explanation for why I couldn’t keep them.’

When Myleene became to be pregnant with her gorgeous son Apollo, she said doctors ‘took no chances’.

The Dancing On Ice contestant explained how she injected herself with ‘countless, endless hormones into my belly to keep my placenta working.’

Speaking of her rainbow baby, Myleene said: ‘He signifies everything good in the world to me,my miracle. To my friends and Mamas who have experienced this, you are the strongest women I know. Thinking of you today’.

Alongside Apollo, Myleene is proud mum to Ava, 12, and Hero, eight, whom she shares with her ex-husband Graham Quinn.

Last month, the presenter announced her engagement with her long term partner Simon Motson.

Over the moon: Last month, the presenter announced her engagement with her long term partner Simon Motson

What causes a miscarriage?

It is highly unlikely that you will ever know the actual cause of a one-off miscarriage, but most are due to the following problems:

• ABNORMAL FETUS

The most common cause of miscarriages in the first couple of months is a one-off abnormal development in the fetus, often due to chromosome anomalies. ‘It’s not as though the baby is fine one minute and suddenly dies the next,’ says Professor James Walker, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Leeds.

‘These pregnancies fail from the outset and were never destined to succeed.’ Most miscarriages like this happen by eight weeks, although bleeding may not start until three or four weeks later, which is worth remembering in subsequent pregnancies. ‘If a scan at eight weeks shows a healthy heart beat, you have a 95 per cent chance of a successful pregnancy,’ says Professor Walker.

• HORMONAL FACTORS

A hormonal blip could cause a sporadic miscarriage and never be a problem again. However, a small number of women who have long cycles and irregular periods may suffer recurrent miscarriages because the lining of the uterus is too thin, making implantation difficult.

Unfortunately, hormone treatment is not terribly successful.

‘There used to be a trend for progesterone treatment, but trials show this really doesn’t work,’ warns Professor Walker. ‘There is some evidence that injections of HCG (human chorionic gonadotrophin, a hormone released in early pregnancy) can help, but it’s not the answer for everyone.’ The treatment must be started as soon as the pregnancy is confirmed, at around four or five weeks.

• AGE

For women over 40, one in four women who become pregnant will miscarry. [One in four women of all ages miscarry, but these figures include women who don’t know that they are pregnant. Of women who do know that they’re pregnant, the figure is one in six. Once you’re over 40, and know that you’re pregnant, the figure rises to one in four]

• AUTO-IMMUNE BLOOD DISORDERS

Around 20 per cent of recurrent miscarriers suffer from lupus or a similar auto-immune disorder that causes blood clots to form in the developing placenta.

A simple blood test, which may need to be repeated several times, can reveal whether or not this is the problem.’One negative test does not mean that a women is okay,’ warns Mr Roy Farquharson, consultant gynaecologist who runs an early pregnancy unit at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

Often pregnancy can be a trigger for these disorders, so a test should be done as soon as possible,’ he adds.But it can easily be treated with low dose aspirin or heparin injections, which help to thin the blood and prevent blood clots forming – a recent trial also showed that women do equally well on either. ”We have a 70 per cent live birth rate in women treated for these disorders,’ says Dr Farquharson, ‘which is excellent.’

• OTHER CAUSES

While uterine abnormalities, such as fibroids, can cause a miscarriage, many women have no problems carrying a pregnancy to term. An incompetent cervix can also cause miscarriage at around 20 weeks.

While this can be treated by a special stitch in the cervix, trials suggest it is not particularly successful, although it may delay labour by a few weeks.Gene and chromosomal abnormalities, which can be detected by blood tests, may also cause recurrent miscarriages in a small number of couples.

A procedure known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis can help. After in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), a single cell is taken from the developing embryo and tested for the gene defect. Only healthy embryos are then replaced in the womb.

It is an expensive and stressful procedure – and pregnancy rates tend to be quite low – but for some this is preferable to repeated miscarriages or a genetically abnormal baby.