Following their decision, the two welcomed a second child earlier this year.
Laura Prepon is opening up about her and her husband's decision to terminate their second pregnancy, one year after welcoming daughter Ella in 2017.
The "Orange Is the New Black" star made the revelation in her forthcoming book "You & I As Mothers," excerpted by PEOPLE. She explained that she and Ben Foster learned something was wrong when they went for a sonogram at 16 weeks.
An echocardiogram confirmed there was a cystic hygroma.
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View Story"Our neonatal specialist told us the brain was not growing and the bones were not growing," wrote Prepon. "We were told the pregnancy would not go to full term and that my body was at risk carrying any longer."
Ben held me as I cried. We had to terminate the pregnancy," she continued. "To get to the second trimester and then be told this awful news, I felt like a failure."
Having suffered from bulimia in her youth, Prepon said she was "scared that somehow the abuse I put my body through could have been part of the reason things went wrong." Doctors, however, assured her that wasn't the case. Still, "I felt like my body had failed and failed having another baby," she said, "The whole cycle of what's wrong with my body came back."
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After praising her husband's support, Prepon said she was "ecstatic" to learn she was pregnant again in 2019. The couple welcomed a son, whose name has not been revealed, in February.
Of their baby journey as a whole, the actress said what they've gone through has "made me so thankful for the blessing we have now." She added, "It put into perspective what a blessing it is to have a healthy child."
