Madi Rohan, wife of Geelong Cats star Gary Rohan, reveals painful journey with miscarriage

The pregnant wife of Geelong star Gary Rohan has spoken candidly about the couple’s devastating journey with miscarriage, revealing she felt as though her body had failed her.

Gary Rohan and wife Madi have opened up about their heartbreaking journey with miscarriage. Pic: Instagram

Madi Rohan, the wife of Geelong star Gary Rohan, has opened up about her heartbreaking experience with miscarriage.

The couple are expecting their first child which they announced in August was their “rainbow baby”.

Madi revealed she suffered a missed miscarriage which occurs when the body still thinks it’s pregnant.

“So I had what they call a missed miscarriage,’’ she told the Missta Mums podcast with Demi Duncan and Melinda Baxter.

“My body was still 100 percent going ahead with the pregnancy and growing and hormones were elevating and doing everything they should have but my body hadn’t registered that I’d lost the baby. I kept growing and still having all of my symptoms.”

This happened at about seven weeks when the scan showed there was no heartbeat. Rohan said they had to endure a two week wait to be sure if she’d miscarried following her last period.

Gary Rohan and Madi attend the Geelong Cats’ Best & Fairest. Picture: Mark Wilson

“The two weeks to wait for that second scan had literally driven me insane,’’ she said.

“Anymore waiting I couldn’t hack it.

“I started to get quite frustrated at my body — what are you hanging on for, why am I still feeling pregnant? If we have lost the baby then what’s going on, why is my body failing me? It’s like my body has missed the miscarriage.

“The maths I was doing... I was counting every hour to try and figure it out. What the correct dates and weeks would have been. I was googling every ultrasound and what it looks like at every week point.

“I just had to get through those two weeks. You don’t want to give up hope and if someone gives you that tiny glimmer you’re not going to give it up. We were never going to give up. The two weeks were torture just thinking of all the possible what ifs.

“I hadn’t bled and nothing had changed. They said they can confirm nothing had continued to grow and there’s absolutely no heartbeat and we’d lost the baby and no glimmer of hope left there.”

Rohan said she felt like she had to keep it to herself not knowing that miscarriage was so common.

“It was almost like I had to keep it secret because it’s not out there,’’ she said.

Gary and Madi Rohan on their wedding day in December last year. Pic: Instagram

“Not that I felt alone, because I definitely had support, but I felt like a minority. I felt different. Hearing one in four, it’s so common, but you never really think it’s going to happen to you. You know it’s a risk, you never really think it’s going to happen to you.

“I think my emotional reaction told me what my gut was saying. It’s something you can’t understand unless you’ve been through it. You hear the stories and you definitely sympathise with others going through it but it hit me like a whole ton of bricks.

“My heart broke at that point especially because I know there must have been women around me who’d been through this and I didn’t know and I wasn’t there to support them.”

Rohan’s mum passed away at a young age from Huntington’s disease when she was 19 and she’s determined to continue raising awareness.

She and Rohan married in December last year.

“It is such a taboo topic. Before this pregnancy I had a miscarriage of my own and felt like there was nothing out there. There was nothing I could resonate with, nothing I could understand a bit about the process and how common it is.

“You’re not alone, one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage.”