Warning: This article is about miscarriage and pregnancy loss. It may be triggering those who have experienced it.
Paula Faris is a mom of three and one of the former hosts of ABC’s The View. And during an episode of The View, Faris returned to the table, revealing that she has also experienced loss in her journey towards motherhood.
Paula Farris Explains Why She Had Her 12-Year-Daughter Witness Her Miscarriage First-Hand
In July 2019, as Faris explained, she became pregnant with her fourth child. Sadly, her pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, her third in her lifetime. However, as Faris continued, she admitted that while she was miscarrying, she had her 12-year-old daughter watch.
“I’m 44. I’ve always wanted four kids, maybe that’s because I am the youngest of four. But that was my third miscarriage. […] I knew what was going on. We were on vacation in Maryland with some friends. I knew the signs, and I brought my daughter into the restroom with me to show her what was going on. I said, ‘I just want to let you know, Mommy, the baby is probably no longer viable. Mommy doesn’t feel any guilt. This is normal. It happens to so many women. It’s happened to me a couple of other times when you get pregnant it might happen to you, Honey. And I want you to know, there is doing you did wrong.'”
Faris and her husband, John Kreuger, share three children, 12-year-old Caroline Grace, 10-year-old JJ, and 6-year-old Landon. She explained that she had Caroline go through the miscarriage with her because she thought it would help “normalize pregnancy loss” for her.
As the March of Dimes reports, “For women who know they’re pregnant, about 10 to 15 in 100 pregnancies will end in miscarriage. Most miscarriages happen within the first trimester, before the 12th week of pregnancy. And miscarriages that occur in the second trimester, between 13 and 19 weeks, happens in 1 to 5 in 100 pregnancies.”
Faris said she thought it was important for her daughter to be apart of it all and to know that if it were to ever happen to her, it is not her fault. And while many people who listened to Faris’s story, and had experienced loss as well, sympathized with her, others were upset with her decision to bring her daughter into a traumatic experience like that.
One commenter wrote, “I really wish someone had talked to me about miscarriages before I had one at 28. I’m highly educated, but I wasn’t ready for that despite knowing it would happen. I needed the support of other women who had been through it.”
Another person added, “I’m sorry for her loss, and it’s her choice what and how she shares this with her kids, but I think that’s way too much for a 12-year-old child to experience like that.”
And one other mom shared, “There is a time and a place, and I don’t think traumatizing a 12-year-old is the best way to go about that lesson.” Where do you stand in this debate?