Anorexic model lost SIX babies to miscarriage because she was ‘too thin’
At her lightest Samantha Reynolds weighed just six stone
AN ANOREXIC model who was desperate to become a mum suffered SIX miscarriages in just two years – but is now a healthy weight and mother to two children.
Despite knowing the complications that could arise from being pregnant while suffering from an eating disorder, Samantha Reynolds, from Belfast, repeatedly tried to conceive.
By the age of 19, she had managed to get pregnant six times – but heartbreakingly had lost all her babies due to being so underweight.
Eventually the pain of the miscarriages took its toll on her and she sank into depression.
Samantha, now 24, said: "I lost all six of them before 12 weeks. It was so difficult.”
Samantha told how she became anorexic at just 10 years old because she was worried about being overweight and bullied at school.
She said: "Even then I didn't want to be bullied at school and I was worried my sister would be prettier than me, so I started trying to hide how much I was eating."
The model, dancer and beautician soon began to make her own lunch so that she could control what she ate and would tell her mum Margaret, 45, that she was going to a friend's house for dinner.
At secondary school her problems got worse and she began to find even more ways to hide her food.
"My mum would ask why I wasn't eating breakfast, so I would pour some cereal into a bowl when she wasn't looking and cover it in milk, making it look like I had had something," she explained.
Samantha continued to eat less and less and in her fourth year of secondary school her mum became concerned about her weight.
By the age of 15 she was 5ft 5 and weighed around eight stone.
She said: "My mum said I was getting very skinny, but I was doing my exams and I was able to tell her that it was just stress."
Margaret discovered her daughter’s issues with food when Samantha forgot to take her bag to school.
The worried mum was astonished to find a week's worth of uneaten lunches inside the bag.
"She spoke to me and I broke down," Samantha said, "She asked me if I was making myself sick and I had to tell her I did. She took me straight to the doctor."
The doctor told her that she was borderline anorexic and she went to see a counsellor.
Her mum told her friends and teachers that they needed to keep an eye on her, to make sure she ate regular meals.
However, Samantha soon lost control again, finding more ways to trick those around her.
"That actually made me a lot worse, because everyone was watching me," she recalled.
"Mum would watch me eat and then sit with me to make sure I wasn't throwing it up again and that was difficult for me."
At the age of 18 Samantha decided to move away from her mum to Enniskillen, in Co Fermanagh - the other side of Northern Ireland.
She said: "It started to get worse then. I was fainting a lot. At my lightest, I was six stone. I had six miscarriages, because I was so thin. It wasn't until I got pregnant that I asked for help."
When she was 19, Samantha fell pregnant with her little girl Mea, now five, but she suffered from severe morning sickness, making the struggle with anorexia more difficult.
After Mea was born, she asked for help and started to gain weight.
However, when she moved back to Belfast, just before her 21st birthday, she again felt she needed some support.
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By then she weighed around nine stone and was told that because she had reached a healthy weight, she couldn't get treatment.
"That's when my eating disorder started up again," said Samantha. "I still struggled mentally and wanted some help, so when they said no, I felt like I needed to lose more weight."
Some days, Samantha survived solely on energy drinks or would snack on just a few apples every day.
As a result, her weight soon plummeted to around seven stone.
At 22 she fell pregnant with her second and her weight continued to fall because of her morning sickness.
When William was born, she was determined to get help again and during treatment she was asked to delete pictures of herself from her younger years to help her move on.
She now weighs just over nine stone and tries to eat well for her children.
Samantha is no longer with the children's fathers and she is their main carer throughout the week.
She said: "Now I have my kids, I make sure I eat breakfast and dinner, because if I don't they won't eat either," she said. "I do worry about my daughter. She picks up on stuff I've said around other people about my weight, so I have to be careful."
Although Samantha has now reached a healthy weight, she finds that her issues with food can be triggered again by a change in routine.
She added: "It is still there sometimes. It is going to be an ongoing battle, but if anyone has problems with food, they need to speak up.
“I think sometimes people don't realise the mental side of it as well. You don't need to be really skinny to be struggling."