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Laura Dove has a long medical history of easily becoming pregnant, but being unable to carry her children to term.
The first time she conceived, she had even been taking a birth control pill. But this first time, and many subsequent times, Dove lost her babies between six and 12 weeks of pregnancy.
In 2004, Dove finally gave birth to her first child, a son called Lewis, with her first husband. But just two years later, her second son was stillborn.
This complication was ultimately what caused Dove’s first marriage to fall apart. After the stillbirth, they stopped trying to have kids for a while, to emotionally process the event. But when they both decided that they wanted more kids – and Dove kept losing them – the pressure and stress of it all took a toll on them.
Dove admitted, “I was really depressed and had psychiatric treatment.”
She wasn’t certain she wanted to have more kids – until she met her current husband, Gareth.
Miraculously, she and Gareth were able to have two daughters and a son – Eva, Megan, and Harrison – in a matter of three short years.
When she first became pregnant again with Gareth, Dove had initially resigned herself to failure. She had convinced herself that all of her children would die during pregnancy so she’d just stopped trying, and even chose not to buy Babygro when she was pregnant with Eva.
But the pregnancy came to term, and Megan and Harrison followed not long after.
Although Dove is now immensely proud and grateful to have the large family she’d always wanted, not everyone has been supportive of her. Because three of her children are so close in age, “people always assume [she] have [sic] popped them out easily. It’s as though [they’ve] been irresponsible and it’s unfair having them all so young.”
Dove and her husband choose not to let these comments bother them. Both of them are incredibly grateful for the now-chaotic life they share and wouldn’t change a moment of it.
