Mary Irungu better known as Marya Prude is a mother of two souls. Sadly, she but didn’t get to see their smiles or tears of joy because they were both stillbirths.
This painful reality is something that Marya has kept from the public eye because of insensitive trolls and critics.
Speaking exclusively to Word Is, Marya opened up about the very heartbreaking loss that shook her to the core.
The heartbroken mum said she faced her pain in the harsh glare of the public and even took a break from her career to deal with the loss.
During the same period, her marriage to Citizen TV’s Willis Raburu ended.
“My baby died in the womb after a few complications,” she opened up.
“It was a 39-weeks pregnancy and so, I was in labour for more than 12-14 hours, I gave birth normally. Pushed three times and the baby came out dead.”
Marya went on to narrate that the two hoped they could meet their baby after they lost the first baby through a miscarriage at nine weeks.
She said was it was an embryonic pregnancy. [A form of a failed early pregnancy, where a gestational sac develops, but the embryo does not form]
“What people don’t know is that I had lost another pregnancy in 2018 at nine weeks then, in 2019, I got pregnant with baby Adana,” she said.
“It was really tough for us since we were trying for a child.”
Speaking about the pregnancy journey, Marya said she had a smooth pregnancy and her sister even did a gender reveal party for her.
Marya was previously known to be a staunch Christian and believer, but after suffering the losses, her faith wavered.
In keeping her daughter’s memory, Marya got a tattoo of her name on her left hand. She says the memory of the loss never goes away.
“Every time am in the shower and I look at my tummy or lying on my bed and my hand is on my tummy, it never goes away. She changed my life.”
She encourages parents who have gone through child loss to speak about it as it is a form of therapy.
“I have a circle of women who have gone through the same and we share a lot. Although I wish to have kids in future, there is fear.
Nobody told me before that there is a possibility of losing a child after carrying them for nine months. I just knew about miscarriages.
So getting pregnant with that in mind, I don’t know but I love children but if that is a possibility, I don’t know.”