Olympic figure skater Tara Lipinski, 41, recalls the gut-wrenching moment she learned her unborn baby didn’t have a heartbeat amid brutal five-year battle with infertility that saw her suffering FOUR miscarriages

Figure skater Tara Lipinski has recalled the devastating moment she discovered her baby had no heartbeat.

The 41-year-old Olympian opened up about her fertility journey and the struggles she and her 39-year-old husband, Todd Kapostasy, have faced.

In the third episode of his podcast, Tara Lipinski: Unexpectedwhich she hosts with partner Todd, she opened up about how she found out their baby had no heartbeat after going through a tough five-year journey trying to have a child.

The athlete revealed she had several unsuccessful IVF cycles, four miscarriages and surgeries, before she was able to conceive a baby naturally – only to then find out the baby had no heartbeat.

In the third episode of her podcast, Tara Lipinski: Unexpected, with her co-host and partner Todd to discuss how she discovered their baby didn’t have a heartbeat.

She revealed that she had several unsuccessful IVF cycles, four miscarriages and surgeries before conceiving naturally, which is when the baby had no heartbeat.

The athlete noted that she was “praying” for a heartbeat, but “just knew” from the look on the doctor’s face that something was wrong, adding that she had been “worried” in the weeks preceding the analysis.

She began by telling the story of when she found out she was pregnant after conceiving naturally.

“I had no hope for it to work out, but somehow, and I don’t know how or why, I got pregnant,” Tara said.

“And I just remember you looking at me and saying, ‘See? We worried for nothing,” she directed towards her husband.

Todd also revealed that when they found out they could get pregnant naturally, he was frustrated that the couple even used IVF.

However, looking back, he noted that he recognized that he seemed like an “asshole back then.”

The couple then moved on to when Tara discovered there was no heartbeat, adding that she was “criticizing her body for letting her down.”

“So at five and a half weeks, you have what’s called a gestational scan,” Todd said.

The athlete noted that she was “praying” for a heartbeat, but that she “just knew” from the look on the doctor’s face that something was wrong and that she had been ” worried” the week before the analysis.

She revealed that she takes a pregnancy test every day (shown asleep during the test)

When Tara discovered there was no heartbeat, she revealed she was “criticizing” her body for “letting her down”.

Tara added, “Good. Then we had to wait, we went to the gestational scan with Dr. Beck.

“So what is it and what did our results show?” ” asked Todd.

Tara explained that she wasn’t sure what to expect during the scan, but thought “maybe it will be okay.”

“So we can see almost every stage of the pregnancy progression because we were working with an IVF clinic,” she said.

“And so we went to the scanner and I didn’t know what to expect, I thought you know, maybe these numbers were good enough.” Maybe it will.

The Olympic skater noted that at first her doctor was hopeful.

“And then Dr. Beck, with a smile on his face, “That’s it! I see him. “And you see this little black bundle with your cute little embryo in the middle. So we saw a gestational sac, and then inside is the yolk sac and hopefully a fetal pole,” she said. declared.

“It was the next big leap and she said, ‘Yes. It’s there, it looks good.”

“They also check if you are aware of the exact status of your pregnancy. I looked good, I think I was a day early. And I thought, ‘OK, now there’s a little more hope.’

She noted that she was “a little hopeful” and “praying” for a heartbeat to appear on screen.

But when she walked into the room, she “just knew” something was wrong and she broke down.

Tara explained that before her fertility journey, she never imagined she would struggle to get pregnant.

Afterward, the skater said she knew her husband had high hopes and was trying to persuade her to “stop worrying.”

After the scan, the couple had to attend another appointment to have a heart rhythm scan done.

Tara added that it was a “crazy scan” for her in general and she still felt worried.

She noted that she was “a little hopeful” and “praying” for a heartbeat to appear on screen.

The athlete added: “Well, you know, I had a little hope and I was just praying for a heartbeat and it’s crazy that this little thing has a flicker that you’ll see on a screen.” This is an important step to take.

“And I walked in and sat down and I just knew.

“I knew looking at her, that awkward silence, that searching, I could tell she just wanted to find that heartbeat.

“And just the look on her face when she said, ‘I’m sorry, there’s no fetal heartbeat.’

Tara explained that before her fertility journey, she never imagined she would struggle to get pregnant.

The figure skater explained that she thought everything would be fine because she was working out and living a healthy lifestyle.

Tara was only 15 when she won gold in figure skating at the 1998 Olympics in Japan.

But she noted that she now knew she was just not “educated” and wished she had thought about it more.

“I was not educated, at no point did anyone suggest this to me to think about it, or to drop a seed in my brain to think about a fertility calendar and a biological clock,” said Tara.

“You kind of heard, ‘Oh, your biological clock is ticking,’ and that’s the only thing I feel like I’ve ever heard that would remotely make me think there was a chronology.”

The figure skater explained that she thinks everything will be fine because she is training and leading a healthy lifestyle.

“I also felt like I was training, working my muscles, hydrating, I was an elite athlete at one point in my life. I eat healthy and I was like, ‘Oh, maybe these things are related,’ and that’s not necessarily true,” she said.

Tara was only 15 when she won gold in figure skating at the 1998 Olympics in Japan. The previous year, at 14, she had been crowned world champion.