I’ve been pregnant five times. I have one child. A son, Sam, who was born on his due date, weighing 6 pounds and 14 ounces, in 1997.
My four other pregnancies didn’t go so well. After Sam, carrying a baby past the first trimester proved impossible. I had one miscarriage early in the first trimester; a second in which the baby’s heart stopped beating between the ninth and 10th week; and then two ectopic pregnancies, a condition in which an embryo implants outside the uterus. If not treated, ectopic pregnancies can be deadly.
In one of those four pregnancies, I underwent a D&C (dilation and curettage) ― a procedure commonly used to terminate a pregnancy in the first trimester. And in two others I was treated with a drug called methotrexate, sometimes used in medication abortions.
