Just before Married at First Sight couple Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner would get the devastating news that she had experienced a miscarriage, the pair got real about the pain they went through in 2016 with the miscarriage of son Johnathan.
In an exclusive preview of the couple’s podcast Hot Marriage. Cool Parents., set to air Wednesday, the then-expectant parents revealed that just a week after announcing their pregnancy on the TODAY Show in July 2016, they learned that the pregnancy was not viable, and that they would be losing their baby.
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“Then very shortly thereafter, I am on a gurney in a hospital,” Otis explained.
“It’s something you’re connected to for so long, and you’re preparing for, was it 17, 18 weeks?” Hehner added.
For the labor and delivery nurse, losing her first pregnancy was especially painful. “I’ve envisioned the day of having my baby more than I ever envisioned getting married or anything,” she explained. “I never in my wildest dreams envisioned that I would be delivering a 17-week-old baby who went immediately to be in heaven.”
She recalled that one of the most heartbreaking parts was seeing her son “perfectly formed,” but who “couldn’t look at us, couldn’t cry to let us know that he needed us … we couldn’t protect him.”
“The worst part about it, as a mother, is that the whole point is we’re supposed to be able to grow and nurture and protect our little baby inside us,” Otis continued.
Hehner chimed in, “I think you look for reasons of why it happened, even when the doctors tell you it’s more common, or it’s kind of a fluke. You don’t necessarily want to believe that, you want to find a reason, or at least make sure this wouldn’t happen again, or couldn’t or shouldn’t … then you realize that there are just a lot of things out of your control.”
“It was just such a dramatic turn from pregnancy and happiness,” he recalled.
The couple did go on to welcome daughter Henley Grace in August 2017, and announced on their podcast on Christmas Day 2018 that they were pregnant once again. Just days later, however, Otis revealed that she had miscarried at 10 weeks.
“We’ve had a ‘failed miscarriage.’ Our baby formed and there was an amniotic sac, but while the amniotic sac continued to grow the baby stopped at some point,” Otis wrote on Instagram.
Soon after, the reality personality shared on social media that she and her husband thought “the worst of it is finally over.”
“We’re trying our best to stay positive. We’ve made it through this before – RIP our sweet angel baby, Johnathan – and we will make it through this too,” Otis wrote. “I guess our little Johnny wanted a little brother or sister to play with up in heaven.”
To hear the full podcast, download Hot Marriage. Cool Parents. wherever you listen to podcasts Wednesday.
Married at First Sight (produced by Kinetic Content) airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Lifetime.
Photo credit: Instagram/Jamie Otis
