Sarah Plack is a doctor and management consultant, she is currently also applying for the title of Miss Germany. There is one thing she is not (yet) about: mother.
Sarah Plack, 32, leads a life that many people will be jealous of. She is happily married, has successfully studied medicine and has worked as a freelance business consultant for many years. But even with people like the likeable Berliner, not everything is perfect – because nobody is. Sarah Plack had to endure two miscarriages and extensive fertility treatment to get closer to her desire to have a child.
At first it looked as if the couple’s family planning would be just as smooth as the relationship. “We have been married for four years,” said Sarah in the star interview. “And after only five months I had a positive pregnancy test in hand.” She happily made a decision: “I thought I would share my path with a couple of YouTube videos. This then turned into a fertility journey that I hadn’t expected.”
At first everything seemed to be going perfectly
Because the dream of pregnancy burst in the ninth week. “The doctor could see on the ultrasound image: There was only an empty fruit cavity. My body had led me to believe that I was pregnant.” A world collapsed for Sarah Plack because she had enjoyed the anticipation of the baby, liked to feel pregnant. But there was one thing she was happy about: “I was very lucky, my gynecologist was extremely sensitive and explained everything to me in peace. I was able to decide everything myself.”
The 32-year-old had to undergo a scraping of the uterus. But more than this physically uncomfortable intervention bothered her the emotional consequences of the experience. “At first there was a real lack of energy, it took me until I could pull myself up again. I also sought help from a psychologist. I just wanted to get pregnant again,” she says.
The couple sought help
At first she still had the hope that she would soon get pregnant a second time. “I knew that many women get pregnant again quickly after a miscarriage. But that didn’t happen.” And so the couple began to look for reasons. Sarah and her husband decided to go to a fertility clinic. “That was the first time I had poor care. In the clinic, the doctor practically told me that I had someone on the gossip and that there was no real reason that it hadn’t worked out so far. We immediately switched clinics.”
It turned out that both her husband and her had problems that made a natural pregnancy very unlikely. “My husband and I talked a lot about it, it made us bond very much. That is not a matter of course: Sex according to plan, not everyone can take it, we took it quite athletically.” She laughs.
Another miscarriage
But then something unexpected happened: “I got pregnant again shortly before the first treatment,” reports Sarah. “But this time I was careful from the start and in the sixth week I had a miscarriage.” It is clear to her: Without professional help, the desire to have children will probably not become a reality. She and her husband begin treatment. “It was clear: we have to go a more difficult path now, but we can go it.” And it actually became difficult, but the couple stuck together. “Often there are also thoughts of guilt. It was not easy for my husband, for example, that I had to inject so many hormones, but nobody can do anything about it,” says Sarah Plack.
The first attempt at artificial insemination failed. “The first ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection, Fertilization of the egg outside the woman’s body, d. Red.) was so bad that there wasn’t even a transfer, “the 32-year-old remembers.” The second ICSI was a little better, but not successful either. The third had a normal number of eggs that were also fertile. I had two inserted and a few days later had a positive blood test. “Finally, the Berliner has real hope for a baby.
Real hope at last
But after all the experiences, the Berliner is now experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions. “I vacillate between fear and hope. You are not so exultant anymore, fear is there.” Nevertheless, Sarah made this first success directly public, also on her blog, which she now runs full-time. “I think it’s a big mistake that women are advised to keep a pregnancy a secret for so long. I told you about it the first time, and so I had interlocutors. It helped me a lot to exchange ideas with others.”
In addition, the rule of not announcing a pregnancy until the third month, when a miscarriage has become less likely, means that many women do not realize how common early miscarriages really are – and that they are by no means alone when it happens to them. Nobody talks about it. Sarah Plack now wants to change that, also with the help of her blog. “I have medical knowledge and personal experience, and maybe I can make a difference in my own way,” she says.
Application as Miss Germany
And she would like to use another, somewhat unusual platform for her message: Sarah is currently running for the title of Miss Germany. “I saw an appeal from Karo Kauer on Instagram and learned that there is a completely different concept this year. And I thought to myself: I have a topic and a mission,” says the 32-year-old. “This is a great platform. At first I thought they just wanted a little animal welfare and environmental protection, but now I see: They are not afraid of taboo subjects.”
She is happy to have applied: “Miss Germany suits me amazingly well. You reach so many people. I think I can talk about this topic quite well – because I have a scientific background and am affected myself. I am Of course, it goes without saying that many women will be there for much longer. ” She says, “The most important thing to me is that we start talking about it.” And she has a piece of advice for everyone who wants to support those affected: “Ask questions instead of making statements – you get into bad faux pas so quickly. I have received a lot of well-intentioned, but not well-made advice.”