Why 'Seventh Heaven' star Beverley Mitchell opened up about her miscarriage
Actress Beverley Mitchell decided to open up about her miscarriage of twins last month because she wanted to create a healthy dialogue.
On Thanksgiving, Mitchell, 37, took to her blog, "Growing Up Hollywood," to share how grateful she was for her family and husband Michael, while also revealing a heartbreaking story.
"A few months back Michael and I were thrilled, we had just found out we were pregnant, and though we were surprised, we were excited. It didn’t take long before we began to prepare for a life filled with more little people in it. And much to our surprise, we came to find out it was twins!" she wrote. "A few weeks later, our new dream of our growing family came crashing down; we had a miscarriage. This was a shock."
She now tells People magazine that she opened up about her family's tragedy because, "I think it’s a conversation starter."
“I’ve been wanting to do it for a few months now," she said of sharing her story. "I just couldn’t find the right words and every time I wrote something I felt like it was not coming off the right way."
But Mitchell was finally able to find the right words to express what she and her family were going through.
“I was able to speak out with a clear heart and get my point across, but not be overly one way or the other and maybe in a way that I thought the message would be heard a little better. My key was just wanting to do it in a way in which people could hear it, understand it and appreciate it and not make anyone feel something that I didn’t want them to,” she continued.
The post, she said, was to hopefully "remove the stigma" of miscarriages and make them something that is easier to talk about for both men and women.
In her post, Mitchell, a mother of two, said her "heart could not make sense of" what happened.
"I never really considered that I would miscarry being that I had already had two healthy pregnancies. This was my misconception, you see, I didn’t know much about miscarriages and I didn’t know many people who had miscarried, or so I thought," she continued.
But she added that the hardest part was suffering "in silence."
"Every time I shared what we were going through I made people uncomfortable, no one ever knows what to say, and to be honest, there is nothing to say," she wrote. "Most people who are sharing their story, we aren’t looking for anything just the opportunity to share their story. It is with sharing it that the healing begins, the acceptance that it happened, it is when you ignore it or pretend that it never happened that you cause more pain. Dismissing it almost makes it worse."
She continued, "So today, I share my scars because the one thing I want to say, is no one should suffer in silence. To speak up and share your wounds, to allow them the opportunity to heal. Let’s remove the stigma, miscarriages happen, they are nothing to be ashamed of."
Mitchell isn't the only actor trying to remove the stigma of miscarriage.
In September, James Van Der Beek wrote on social media that his wife and his family too has dealt with the tragedy of miscarriages.
"It has nothing to do with anything the mother did or didn’t do. So let’s wipe all blame off the table before we even start," he wrote. "It’s painful and it’s heartbreaking on levels deeper than you may have ever experienced. So don’t judge your grief, or try to rationalize your way around it. Let it flow in the waves in which it comes, and allow it it’s rightful space. And then... once you’re able... try to recognize the beauty in how you put yourself back together differently than you were before."
