Sports anchor Sara Walsh got personal about parenthood and loss in a touching Mother’s Day Instagram post that has struck a chord with many.
“My mother bought them these onesies because she thought they were funny,” Walsh wrote, referring to the photo she posted of herself with her infant twins, who are both wearing blue “good egg” playsuits. “For us, they’re especially poignant,” she added. “Finding a good egg didn’t come easy for me, and I suspect there are many people out there facing the same struggle.”
Walsh, 39, lost her ESPN anchor job as a part of recent company layoffs, just as she was completing her maternity leave. “I was truly excited to return to work today from maternity leave with the twins,” she shared on Twitter on May 4. “Unfortunately, I will not be coming back as I was included in the recent layoffs.”
The Monday Instagram post, though, which has received more than 4,900 likes and many comments, focuses on her difficult path to motherhood, which was punctuated by miscarriages — including one the sportscaster had on-air — and exhausting rounds of IVF procedures.
About her first pregnancy loss, she wrote: “The road down a dark path began while hosting SportsCenter on the road from Alabama. I arrived in Tuscaloosa almost three months pregnant. I wouldn’t return the same way. The juxtaposition of college kids going nuts behind our set, while I was losing a baby on it, was surreal. I was scared; nobody knew I was pregnant, so I did the show while having a miscarriage. On television. My husband [pitcher Matt Buschmann] had to watch this unfold from more than a thousand miles away, texting me hospital options during commercial breaks.”
Still, she continued, “It would get worse. Two more failed pregnancies.” Then came “the IVF road of endless shots and procedures,” during which, eventually, they would be able to salvage only two eggs. “I refused to even use them for a long time, because I couldn’t bear the idea of all hope being gone. I blew off pregnancy tests, scared to know if it worked,” she admits. But then? “It had. Times two.”
But Walsh said she knew better than to start celebrating.
“So I spent a third straight football season pregnant, strategically picking out clothes and standing at certain angles, using scripts to hide my stomach,” she wrote. “There would be no baby announcement, no shower; we didn’t buy a single thing in preparation for the babies, because I wasn’t sure they’d show up. We told very few people we were pregnant, and almost no one there were two. For those that thought I was weirdly quiet about my pregnancy, now you know why.”
She concludes by noting that she’d hosted SportsCenter on Mother’s Day for as long as she can remember and that the last few years have served as “an hours-long reminder of everything that had gone wrong.” She added: “I wasn’t on TV today, and I’m not sure when I will be again, but instead, I got to hang with these two good eggs. My only good eggs. And I know how lucky I really am.”
Her story resonated with many commenters, including one who shared, “No IVF, but otherwise very similar. I still remember standing at the changing table 2 weeks after our daughter was born when it hit me that I really did have a baby … I had prepared for another heartbreak all those months. We are now planning that little miracle’s wedding!! Tears as I type. What a journey! Enjoy every minute.”
Another shared this: “Thank you for going public and sharing your journey. They are absolutely beautiful babies! What a blessing! May God bless you, your husband, and your twins! I am a mother of 4, a grandmother of 8 lively, beautiful grandchildren, and a grandmother of 6 unborn babies who are now in Heaven due to very early miscarriages. I have learned firsthand how deeply sad miscarriages are. Your story gives hope to others who are experiencing similar difficulties. Two healthy eggs = two beautiful twins!”