Nadia Sawalha discusses why she kept miscarried foetus in the freezer after third miscarriage

The presenter described her experience during an appearance on Loose Women

Nadia Sawalha has spoken about the multiple miscarriages she experienced and explained why, when grieving her third miscarriage, she kept the foetus in the freezer.

Appearing with her fellow panellists on Loose Women on Monday, the group discussed reports suggesting women who are carrying babies with fatal birth defects could be encouraged to give birth to the baby so doctors can use its organs to treat people, including adults, awaiting a transplant.

While sharing her thoughts on the matter, Sawalha touched on her painful experience of miscarriage and described her grief after miscarrying at home for the third time.

“I remember when I had my third miscarriage, I actually had it at home and delivered it. I was just not right in my head. I don’t know what would have happened if somebody had come and asked me [about donating organs] at that point.

“I was just so strange, do you know I actually kept it?” she said. “I was about four and a half months, I actually kept the foetus in the freezer because I didn’t want it to go anywhere. Because there’s that connection, that lioness comes out. I wasn’t able to do anything, I wasn’t able to protect. I’m not ready to let go. Eventually, we had a burial for it and that was really good.”

NHS officials have emphatically denied reports suggesting that women carrying babies with fatal birth defects would be encouraged to bring the child to term so they can harvest its organs.

Following a Mail on Sunday front page over the weekend which read “NHS to harvest babies’ organs”, the organ donation service issued a statement stressing that a pregnant woman would never be “pressured” to consider the idea of a transplant.

“Under no circumstances would NHS Blood or Transplant staff or anybody else within the NHS pressure women to continue with a pregnancy solely for the possibility of organ donation. Organ donation in the circumstances of pregnancies where a non-survivable condition is diagnosed would only be considered if the potential parents have raised it as something they want to explore.”