Miriam O’Callaghan: ‘After nearly losing the pregnancy, I feel lucky every time I look at my son ’

Presenter Miriam O’Callaghan recalls the traumatic pregnancy with her youngest child after being kept in a hospital for almost five months

Miriam launched the 2021 Bewley’s Big Coffee Morning Social for Hospice yesterday. (Photo: Tom Honan)

Nicola Anderson Twitter Email

August 20 2021 02:30 AM

Miriam O’Callaghan has recalled the traumatic pregnancy with her youngest child which left her terrified she would lose her baby.

The Prime Time presenter described how she had woken up one morning when she was 21 weeks pregnant with son Jamie, now aged 15, and realised she was experiencing a “massive haemorrhage”.

She alerted her husband, Steve Carson, who tried to reassure her but she was convinced all was lost.

“I burst into tears saying, ‘Steve we’ve lost our baby’,” she said.

Rushed into the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street, Dublin, she was diagnosed with placenta previa and was kept in for the remainder of her pregnancy – a period of almost five months.

Every day, she would go down to the little chapel in the hospital where there was a book with all the names of the babies who had died through miscarriage.

“I used to go down to that chapel every day just to look at that book and I used to speak to Jamie. I would say ‘I don’t want you to be in that book’,” she said.

Her son is now a happy and healthy six-foot-two teen. “But I still feel incredibly lucky when I look at him,” she said, adding that she always empathises with women who have lost a child through miscarriage.

“You don’t forget,” she said.

Ms O’Callaghan once interviewed a woman who, chatting beforehand, she asked how many children she had. The woman replied “five, but one was a late miscarriage”.

Ahead of the launch of the 2021 Bewley’s Big Coffee Morning Social for Hospice, the presenter visited Our Lady’s Hospice in Harold’s Cross, Dublin, describing it as a “remarkable” place.

“It’s so peaceful and happy. It makes you realise we need to stop moaning about the small things of life,” she said.

The death of her sister, Anne, in 1995 at the age of 33 made her acutely aware of death among younger people. However, Ms O’Callaghan had been a regular visitor to Harold’s Cross even before that, with her first visit in 1992, the year she came back from London to work for RTÉ.

“I’ve always been aware of being lucky in life. I try to have a positive attitude. We’re only here for a short time,” she said.

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Currently enjoying the summer break – with plans to decamp soon with her eight children to Dingle in Co Kerry which she describes as her ‘happy place’ – she says she is feeling optimistic about the autumn ahead.

With her son Jamie still at school and three children in college, she is hopeful they will be able to go back to relative normality, adding that one son studying engineering in UCD did not get to go into college at all last year. “Even if the young people can get back to school and university, I’ll be happy because their lives have been on hold,” she said.

“My mum is an amazing 93 years old – she’s a former school principal, she drives and still goes shopping in Dunnes – and she said to me the other day ‘who would have thought, Miriam, we’d live through a pandemic?’. She’d never lived through one before.”

The pandemic also saw Prime Time ratings “rocket”, and Ms O’Callaghan admits there is pressure to keep those numbers up.

“The danger is can we hold on to that? People tune in when they’re worried about things but if everything goes perfect again we have to try to keep those ratings,” she said

Meanwhile, she said she had been watching the scenes playing out in Afghanistan with horror.

“When I saw those images first of the people falling from the plane I actually started to cry in my kitchen because it was so horrendous,” she said.

As a female TV presenter, she is conscious of the bravery of her Afghan counterparts who reappeared on TV this week to present current affairs programmes after the fall of the government.

“Some really great journalists have spoken out and it just makes you very aware of how much we might give out about Ireland but in the end, it is a very safe place for women,” she said.

On hand to launch the morning campaign for Together for Hospice – representing 26 hospices and specialist palliative home care services throughout the country – Ms O’Callaghan urged people to get together with family, friends and colleagues for a coffee morning social on September 23 to support the vital work of these services for families and communities.

“This year we really want to see people get creative with their events and coffee creations and take time together with loved ones to help make this the best year yet,” she said.

Everyone taking part is encouraged to host socially distanced coffee morning socials and follow all government guidelines.

Last year, more than €1m was raised nationwide – a significant fundraising milestone for the event which has raised more than €40m since its inception in 1992.

The funds raised have enabled local hospice groups to fund frontline staff such as nurses and healthcare assistants who provide specialist, high-quality and loving care to patients and their families, fund ongoing facility enhancements as well as buy crucial equipment.

Audrey Houlihan, chief executive of Our Lady’s Hospice Harold’s Cross and chairperson of Together for Hospice, said the funds raised each year by the Irish public ensured they could continue to provide vital support to individual patients and their families.

Bewley’s managing director Jason Doyle said the company was immensely proud of its 29-year partnership with Hospice. To register to host a coffee morning, visit hospicecoffeemorning.ie or call 1890 998 995. All hosts are provided with a free coffee morning pack.