Cork singer and actress: I hope sharing my ectopic pregnancy story will save someone’s life

IN August, Cork singer and actress Claudia Rose Long discovered she was pregnant with her first child. She was thrilled.

“It was a total shock,” she recalled, adding that she and the man she married last year, former Cork City soccer star Sean Maguire, were “over the moon”.

However, it was to be the start of a terrifying ordeal that brought great trauma to Claudia, Sean, and her family in Cork.

Claudia went through what is called an ectopic pregnancy, which occurs when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the main cavity of the uterus.

Bravely, she has decided to go public about her experience, in the hope it may save the life of someone in a similar predicament.

While ectopic pregnancies only happen in around one in every 90 pregnancies, raising public awareness about them can only be a force for good.

Claudia, who has appeared in The Voice UK and on The Young Offenders, said when she discovered she was pregnant, she had been bleeding for two weeks. She called her doctor, who booked her in for an immediate ultrasound scan as she was over seven weeks’ pregnant by that stage.

I went to the hospital with Sean for the scan, and the nurse asked me if I had any pain, I told her no, I was just uncomfortable.

“She then sat me up and told me I was experiencing an ectopic pregnancy. I knew what this was as I’ve seen some celebrities post about their experiences, but didn’t fully understand.”

Claudia, from Ballyphehane, stressed: “I didn’t have normal symptoms, so the more awareness I can bring to people, the better - it might save a life.”

She underwent a barrage of tests and was told she would need urgent surgery the next day.

After a very scary and restless night of crying and fear of the unknown, I was taken to surgery to remove the pregnancy and one of my Fallopian tubes.

“At this moment I just wanted to be safe because if it had gone any further I could die, as ectopic pregnancies can be fatal.”

All of this was taking place when Claudia was a long way from home, as she and Sean live in the north-west of England, where he now plays for Carlisle United. Her mother Rose flew over, for support.

“After the surgery, I was back in the room with my mum and Sean by my side, I am so so grateful to them for being with me as I was a bundle of emotions,” she said.

“The next part of the journey was recovery and focusing on getting well. 

The mental side of this has been so hard and a day doesn’t go by where I don’t think about it.

“I feel so blessed to have Sean as in those moments ‘in sickness and in health’ really came in to play. Him and my mom looked after me better than I could have hoped and I wouldn’t have gotten through it without them.”

Claudia adds: “The reason I’ve decided to talk about this instead of keeping a very personal experience private is because my understanding of ectopic pregnancies was that you would be in excruciating pain, and struggling to walk.

“This wasn’t the case for me - I had a delayed period, light bleed, some slight pain which I thought was a kidney infection and that was it.

“Had I not taken the pregnancy tests, I would have been walking around not knowing what was happening.

“This has been one of the toughest experiences of my life. I’m grateful to be alive and here, but also sad to have lost that first pregnancy innocence and all that comes with it.”

It was a traumatic experience for Sean, who had just signed from Preston North End, and was grateful to be given time off during the ordeal by his new manager at Carlisle.

When he returned to action and scored his first goal for his new club, he celebrated by kissing a poignant new tattoo he had done on his wrist, showing angel wings,

Speaking to his local News & Star newspaper in Cumbria, Sean, 29, went public with his emotions about the pregnancy trauma.

“One minute you’re absolutely buzzing, then we went for the scan to make sure everything’s alright, and next thing you know she’s in an emergency room getting an operation.

It’s absolutely heartbreaking. She was really hurting at the time and absolutely devastated. I don’t think many people know about ectopic pregnancy – I didn’t.

“When we were in the scanning room and they were explaining it could be an ectopic pregnancy, I had to wait for the nurse to leave the room, and ask my wife, ‘What’s this?’ She burst into tears, because she knew what it was.

“There’s probably more people out there going through this than what you think,” he said.

 “That’s women and men. I didn’t have a clue about what it was. I’d never heard about this scenario.

“For me, anyway, family comes first and then there’s football,” added Maguire, who was brought up in Kilkenny and scored 38 goals in 51 games at Cork City in 2016-7, when he met Claudia.

Looking to the future, Claudia said: “We are positive we will be able to conceive again and that it will be a healthy pregnancy, but for now the focus is just on getting better.

“I wanted to share this to urge any females to never ignore even the slightest sign of something being wrong. 

Anything to raise awareness. I didn’t have normal symptoms so the more awareness I can bring to people, the better, it might save a life.

“You are not over-thinking any symptoms and don’t be made to feel like you’re dramatic. Listen to your body and speak up.”