Already a doting mother to son Leo, Louise Thompson has taken to TikTok and opened up about the reality of growing her family with husband Ryan Libbey, following her traumatic childbirth experience which led to haemorrhages and the removal of her colon – not to mention various mental health conditions.
After seeing a baby in public and feeling broody for the first time since her son Leo was born in 2022, the former Made in Chelsea star shared, ‘For a long time I was so triggered by babies – I couldn’t look at people’s babies and pregnancy announcements and those sorts of things.
‘I looked at this little, cute thing, so pretty and I thought, “I just wish I could have another one” to be perfectly honest. And it kind of brought up all sorts of feelings. Especially as Leo is very much out of the baby phase, he’s turning three.’
Louise, 34, continued, ‘Now the tricky thing for us is that this just isn’t really possible in the conventional way because I’m not going to carry another child.
‘I really wanted to freeze my eggs and some embryos last year, but I was overcoming by stoma surgery for a good chunk and then that was then when I started to feel really well. And I feel like I slightly missed the boat but I can’t put the blame on myself because there wasn’t really an appropriate time before I started taking a bit of a dip again.
‘What I didn’t realise is that I’ve started this new medication at the beginning of this year called upadacitinib [a medicine used to treat Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis] and one of things that I’ve noticed about this medication is that it’s not safe to get pregnant on it and will have health and safety implications for your fetus. I need to do some more research about the effect that it can have, not on the growth of a child inside of you, but on eggs.’
Naturally Louise’s many fans who have been supporting her on her difficult journey had numerous words of support and advice for her in the comments of her short but emotional video.
One wrote, ‘Follow your heart, explore options and weigh up the worse pain: trying and failing/becoming ill or regretting never having tried’ whilst another shared, ‘I think it’s amazing that you are thinking this way - really amazed at how you’re now in the position you want to have another baby.’
Always open and honest, Louise concluded, ‘The most important thing is my health. I’m not going to risk my health to freeze some eggs and embryos because I need to be around to be an amazing mum to my son. That is paramount.
‘It would be nice to hear from people who have also taken this drug and been able to grow their family at some point. What a minefield!
‘Do I just accept that I’m someone who is going to let this change the course of my life forever and just be like a boss business lady, or do I pursue something that I always thought would be the thing that I wanted, which is having a bigger family?’
Daisy Hall is a News and Entertainment writer on Grazia