Just four weeks ago, Britney Spears shared some exciting news with the world. She was pregnant. She wrote on Instagram, “So I got a pregnancy test … and uhhhhh well … I am having a baby.” 

She and her fiancee, Sam Asghari, were not necessarily trying to have a baby, but they must not have been preventing it either. They weren’t expecting for Spears to get pregnant, but they also seemed excited about the news.

Spears is 40 years old, and while many women successfully have babies at age 40 and beyond, mothers who have babies at this age are on the older end of the spectrum. In fact, any mom over the age of 35 is considered old in the world of obstetrics because these women are at an increased risk of having a complicated pregnancy.

Spears’ most recent Instagram post shares some devastating news. She lost the pregnancy. She had a miscarriage.

Many women experience miscarriages during the first trimester, which is why women are often advised not to share their pregnancy news right away. For example, many women wait until the second trimester to post about their pregnancy on social media.

Spears didn’t wait. She wrote on Instagram, “Perhaps we should have waited to announce until we were further along; however, we were overly excited to share the good news.”

Spears explained, “We have lost our miracle baby early in the pregnancy. This is a devastating time for any parent.”

Watch the video below to learn more about Spears’ pregnancy and pregnancy loss and to hear from Good Morning America’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, about what causes a miscarriage and what women can do to prevent a miscarriage from happening.

Do you know anyone who has experienced pregnancy loss? If you have children, did you wait until the pregnancy was further along before announcing the news to the world?