Scottish comedienne suffers stillbirth

In sad news, comic Ronni Ancona — who shot to fame in the UK after appearing on BBC’s Big Impression, for which she won the Best TV Comedy Actress award at the British Comedy Awards — has delivered her second child stillborn.  The 38-year-old Ronni is described to have been ‘near the end of’ the pregnancy when she was told that her baby had died in utero.  Said Ronni: 

The grief is terrible, as is the endless feeling of missing someone you never knew.

Ronni and her husband Gerard Hall, a doctor, already have a 2-year-old daughter Lily. 

Source:  The Sunday Mail

Comments

This is really sad. My husband and I lost our first child to stillbirth. I hope she has strength to pull through this difficult time and that she finds people who can provide her the support she will need.

- Sarah on June 3rd, 2007

oh god that is awful i am such a big fan of her as i live in the uk, i hope she gets through with the strength that i know she has

- maz on June 3rd, 2007

This is the one thing I’ve been terrified most of, as I’m now 8 months along and I had the same fear when I was pregnant with my daughter. Nothing else worried me as much as the idea of stillbirth. I can’t even begin to comprehend the amount of grief they and other couples in this situation are going through. My prayers are with them.

- Jessica on June 3rd, 2007

I believe this happened last summer in 06. There are pictures of her pregnant in late May 06 and then not pregnant a few months later. Her first daughter was born in 2005.

- Amy on June 3rd, 2007

Having gone through this myself, I know the pain and wonder she is going through. Nothing hurts worse than losing a child you’ve carried to term only to suddenly lose the baby and have to endure childbirth.

- Rachael on June 3rd, 2007

That is horrible. If they want to add on to their family, they may need to consider adoption to prevent going through this again. Absolutely awful.

- Chana on June 3rd, 2007

I so feel for them..WE lost our much loved son Kristopher on November 25th 2006..He was our third son..but i still struggle day to day through the emotions of this..Stillbirth is actually considered anytime after 20 weeks..So she may not have been at term..It is still considered stillbirth..I hope she finds great support because sadly society doesnt always recognize us mothers as grieving..and it is a very isolating thing to go through..And as for the adoption thing..I think that is so silly that people say that..I had my aunt say to adopt the day I came home from the hospital from having Kristopher..And all I could think was I dont want another child I want the one I just lost..And for me personally..I dont want to adopt I want to carry my child if possible..We also are going through infertility treatments as we did on our other three as well..Including the one I lost..May God help guide her through the difficult year ahead dealing with the loss of her child..terralynn

- Terralynn on June 4th, 2007

This is such an awful thing and my heart goes out to anyone that has gone through such an incredible loss! I am due in August and this too is my absolute WORST fear. I offer my deepest respect to any woman that has to find their way through such unimagineable grief… there really are no words to truly say how strong you are!

- Amy on June 4th, 2007

I am sorry to hear about this loss, and
others who shared their stories.

- KarenC on June 7th, 2007

This just happened to us May 31st, 2007. I feel compelled to comment cause her name is Lilly. We were overdue with her and I had false labor the Thursday before. About a week before that I had an ultrasound done because one of my midwives thought she was breech. Oh, how I wish that had been so, because she would probably be with us now:(

- Crystal on July 26th, 2007

You are a strong woman. Heavenly Father is watching over you and So is your angel. And remeber your baby will be your angel. Just keep remembering your angel and you will stay on the positive road. I was 35 weeks when I lost my Christopher and he was my second child. Now he has 4 brothers and 1 Sister. I know that I’m not doing this alone.
I am getting ready to launch an Organization that supports Mothers in our same challenge, I could use any help and ideas from anyone wishing to join me. I believe that we can be there for each other and other mothers. Also, anyone willing to help sponsor please e-mail me @ [e-mail] with information to contact you. Thank you for this site, My whole heart is out to you and other moms like us.

- Natalie on September 11th, 2007

Love Ya! You guys are awesome!

- Natalie on September 11th, 2007

Dear Ronnie & Gerald, we know and share your sadness as we lost our baby daughter Amalia Nicole Devine @39Wk a perfectly healthy baby to (UCA) Umbilical Cord Accident.
We all go into pregnancy based on what midwifes and Dr’s say it’s a new world to parents and we depend on professionals to do the correct thing. In Scotland under current NHS guidelines for antenatal care there are many flaws and the care is not the same as in England of who also have problems. We have discovered many professionals are lacking in many skills and knowledge and do not have the skills to managed baby’s detected with Nuchal cord. Currently, depending on your post code depends on the amount of scans you get, we live in Lanarkshire and only get 1 scan so we paid for private scans and at 36Wk presentation scan Amalia was detected with Nuchal Cord (Nuchal Cord is when the umbilical cord is wrapped around the baby’s neck in our case x2) when NHS midwife and Obstetrician were advised of this they stated its normal 7 out of 10 baby’s have it don’t worry, well Nuchal cord killed our baby approx 18 Hrs before delivery due to cord compression. We are now 7 months on fighting for justice for baby Amalia and its now clear that more than 50% of stillbirths are recorded as unknown ask ourselves can we trust them well we did not as they gave us a form 6 stating our baby’s cause of death was unknown we rejected this and 3 months later got the true death certificate and what a nightmare this was, we have raised this point with government asking how many death certificates are being issued that are wrong. NHS clearly wants to quote statistics however we found that statistics can also be incorrect. Many bereaved parents can do no more than accept and walk away, we didn’t and made them correct their errors.
Nuchal cord complications caries a very high risk in pregnancy as baby can suffer death or brain damage. The UK doesn’t want to recognise UCA however in USA http://www.preginst.com reference silent Risk by Dr JH Collins makes it very clear the dangers relating to Nuchal Cord and the importance of ultrasound scanning in late term, look at Divina Mccall she makes it clear that her stand & deliver home births was al based on late term scans reassuring her no complications were noted. Our NHS in Lanarkshire are happy to promote Divina but do not mention or do late scan, how misleading they are and shame on them for that. Also 2 in every 3 pregnancy’s will require medical intervention. .FACT

Stillbirths can be prevented and we are going to prove it, this may take some time but our family friends are backing us also we have now received guidance and support from http://www.jakescharity.org & http://www.preginst.com and shame on NHS for refusing Dr Collins at his own expense to come to Scotland and present his research at a NHS seminar based on baby Amalia’s case how sad are these people who run our NHS.

- Robbie & Barbara on May 17th, 2008

Sorry – I heard about this AGES ago and I know to some extent your lives have moved on – as have ours. We lost our first son, Matthew at full term in Aug 2003. His death changed me forever. I was fortunate to have a second son 11 months later and a daughter 18 months after that and I KNOW I AM LUCKY. But my life has been changed forever. It is not “just” the grief which is so painful that I often think if they cut me open without any pain relief it could not be worse – and it is SO relentless…it is the fact that I fear the worst at all times – I cannot be blase about anything related to my children – I have had to have therapy! And that is because, although every parent knows the fear that we have about harm coming to our children, those of us who have lost a child know what it actually feels like. And I would truly not wish that on my worst enemy – I truly hope you are happy as a family now. xxxxx

- Tracy Baldwin on August 16th, 2009