Maria Walsh has opened up about her pregnancy journey as she prepares to welcome her first child.
The MEP describes the experience to date as an emotional rollercoaster that has seen her endure multiple setbacks, cruel jibes about her weight, and questioning her loneliness.
Speaking to Evoke, she said:
‘It’s just me, so I’m single parenting. ‘I’ve tried to be open about it; there were a reported 6,000 IVF cycles in Ireland last year, and if you equate that to how often we’ve talked about it [in the Dáil], it’s abysmal; it’s imbalanced.’
The decision to become a parent on her own wasn’t an easy one, and Maria recalls how: ‘I ended up asking myself questions of “am I doing this because I am lonely and not in a partnership? Am I doing this because the fulfilment of work is not sustaining me anymore?
“Can I do this? Can you have a career and be a mother at the same time? Who’s in my village?” I have parents and siblings and amazing friends and an incredible team, but at the end of the day, I am the sole responsible person for this little person.’
Maria’s road to becoming pregnant wasn’t an easy one. An initial appointment proved to be disappointing, but even when she found the right consultant, there were more setbacks to come.
‘We had some delays… I produced too many eggs when we did the egg retrieval, and from there I needed to rest my body because I had produced too much oestrogen, so that was disappointing,’ she recalled.
Maria continued: ‘When I went in, around September time, I had issues with the lining of my womb. It just wasn’t thick enough, so that delayed the egg transfer because you have a high probability of miscarriage.’
Maria finally had the egg transfer in January, but a few short weeks later suffered through a miscarriage scare.
‘I had the egg transfer, and then all was going so well, and then I had a little miscarriage scare at the end of February this year where I started bleeding for a few days,’ she said. ‘I was in Brussels, and I was crazy busy with work, and because of my work, I didn’t get home to scan until the following Monday, so it was a long week.
‘I’m sure many women will relate, you end up splitting your head, your brain and your body disassociates in order to survive, and for me I immediately went into “well if I am miscarrying, I’ll probably have to wait two months, and then we’ll go again and how do I get myself healthier and better so I don’t miscarry again?”
‘You’re trapped in this half fear, heavy blame game, but I was really fortunate when I rescanned.’
Maria Walsh opens up about emotional rollercoaster of pregnancy
Maria has mostly kept her pregnancy under wraps, but there have been some lonely moments along the way. ‘I didn’t tell anybody, none of my family,… because in my personal life I was trying to have some element of control as to what was happening.’
She goes on to add: ‘There are parts where you look back and go, “I wish I had someone to lean into”, perhaps when I thought I might have miscarried, but that was not my story, and I always have to be honest with the fact that if I’d waited any longer, this journey would become so much harder for me, and for a long time I was I wouldn’t say actively trying to meet somebody but I was certainly open to it but it didn’t happen.
‘There’s a saying, shoulda, woulda, coulda, this is one of the most sacred spaces, and I just wanted to make sure I didn’t have any regret not doing it.’
Another low point came when Maria found herself hit with cruel comments directed at her weight.
She said: ‘It was predominantly social media… not just bots, not fake accounts, it’s real people who have real families and real jobs… There was quite a lot of sexualised commentary comparing me to 12 years ago when I was the International Rose of Tralee and slimmer than now.
‘A part of the terms and conditions of being in politics or any public role is you face the wrath of social media and commentary from real people.’
She adds: ‘It is what it is, the terms and conditions, but I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with my body from a young age, and I would fluctuate in weight.’
Therapy helps, as does turning off the comments on X, but Maria still hears some of the worst remarks from outraged friends and family.
Maria is now happily looking forward to meeting her baby, who is due in October.
Revealing the little one’s gender, she told EVOKE: ‘I’m having a girl. I’m very excited and basically petrified because that comes with a whole slew of, you know, trying to make sure the world is a little bit nicer to women.’
