“It’s everything I wanted”: Pippa Sheehan celebrates baby joy after losing seven babies to miscarriages

As Pippa Sheehan cradles her newborn in her arms, she’s overcome with a joy she has longed years for after losing seven babies - including twins - in six separate miscarriages.

As Pippa Sheehan cradles her newborn in her arms, she’s overcome with a joy and hope she has longed years for after losing seven babies in a harrowing infertility journey.

The Channel 10 journalist, 35, gave birth to her second son, Monty, on Wednesday last week at the Mater Mother’s Hospital in Brisbane in an ‘absolute magic’ experience.

He is the long awaited arrival to their family, joining his big brother Alfie, 3, and, Sheehan says, Monty is the ninth child she holds in her heart after losing seven babies to six miscarriages over five years, including twins last year.

But Monty’s birth, she says, has been her “rebirth”.

Pippa Sheehan with her new baby son Monty at three days old. Picture: Annette Dew

“He is just so beautiful … this has been absolute magic,” she said from hospital this week.

“I wanted it (labour) to be calm and uplifting time for us given everything that’s happened for us in the last few years and it was amazing.

“It was everything I wanted and more as a healing experience and a restorative experience and something that was really precious for us … and knowing that was going to be a new marker for us as a family.”
Sheehan found out she was pregnant with Monty just before Christmas last year and after an anxious wait, went into labour spontaneously Wednesday morning last week.
There was enough time for her husband to set up the birth suite how she’d dreamt of with fairy lights, affirmations and photos on the wall reflecting joyous and powerful memories including pictures of Alfie, happy moments and strong women and family who inspired her.
It made her six-hour labour an empowering experience, she says.

It was a contrast to the birth of Alfie which Sheehan describes as ‘traumatic’ after she was rushed into surgery after suffering an internal haematoma then thrown into the peak of a pandemic as a new mother.
The years have seen Sheehan and her husband navigate difficult times, particularly the challenges of heartbreaking infertility.

Pippa Sheehan celebrates her baby joy after a harrowing infertility journey. Picture: Annette Dew

Sheehan shared her story last year with The Courier Mail, ahead of her fundraiser for The Pink Elephant Support Network, where she cut her long locks to raise awareness.
She bravely opened up on the three miscarriages she experienced before Alfie and the three afterwards in the hope it would make others feel less alone.

But the central theme to her story is strength and it’s what lead her, and Monty, here.

“I knew he would come,” said Sheehan of her second child.

Monty is now the light, says Sheehan, who has guided their family through the darkness.

“I have so much hope and possibility after this birth,” she said.

“Monty is lighting up our world.”

Sheehan couldn’t be more grateful for Monty and Alfie and as she holds the family she has close, she’s thinking of those who are longing for a child.

“I don’t think there are words that fit,” she said from hospital this week of finally having her baby.

“I look to so many others who trying and still trying (to have a baby) and have faced every hurdle you can imagine.

“It’s cruel and a blessing that it can happen for some people and not others.”

Sheehan so often tells the stories of others but hers has proven one of the most powerful.

“It’s a privilege to be able to share our story and if someone might see it and feel so much less alone, that’s why,” she said.

Originally published as “It’s everything I wanted”: Pippa Sheehan celebrates baby joy after losing seven babies to miscarriages