Itchy Skin Is a Common Pregnancy Side Effect, but For 1 Mom, It Had Devastating Results

When Gabriella Morley noticed how itchy the skin around her baby bump was during her third trimester, she thought nothing of it. Your skin is stretching after all, right? Unfortunately for Gabriella, this common pregnancy side effect was a sign of intrahepatic cholestasis, a rare liver disease that affects pregnant women and can cause stillbirth.

At 39 weeks, Gabriella and her boyfriend, Matthew Dalton, realized that the little girl they'd named Poppy wasn't moving. After rushing to the hospital, the couple were given devastating news: the high levels of acidity in Gabriella's blood had caused Poppy to go into cardiac arrest. There was no other choice than to deliver the baby stillborn.

The grieving mom explained in an interview with the Daily Mail how hearing the doctor confirm there wasn't a heartbeat was an out-of-body experience. "I remember letting out this scream but then I fell silent and just stared out the window. Matty stood next to me squeezing my hand with his head down crying. It didn't feel real."

After losing her daughter, it became Gabriella's mission to make moms-to-be aware of the condition so they don't experience the same pain she did. "Losing Poppy has been the most devastating thing ever. No mother should have to experience what it is like to go through nine months of pregnancy and leave hospital with no baby. But it does happen and people need to talk about it more."