It has taken Frances Tatum, 38, a long time to learn to love her body
WORDS: JULIA SIDWELL. PHOTOS: KAY CLARK PHOTOGRAPHY, @PHOTOSBYUGLY, TELL & SELL STORIES
My fitted embroidered gown flowed beneath me as we swayed along to Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car.
‘I love you, Mrs Tatum,’ my new husband Oli, then 29, said, holding my tiny waist. It was June 2019 and after seven years together, we’d tied the knot. Now we were centre stage for our first dance and I’d never felt more beautiful. After months of pre-wedding dieting to slim down my size-12 figure, my size-8 dress fitted my slim 10st body like a glove. And didn’t I deserve to feel special? Because the journey to get here hadn’t been easy.
As a child, I’d been diagnosed with the rare genetic condition Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). It meant my body didn’t produce enough collagen to support my connective tissue. My joints had worn away and over the years I’d undergone reconstructive surgery on my ankles, knees and femurs.
Oli had been one hell of a partner to me since we’d met when I was 25, on a night out at uni in Northampton. He’d helped me like a carer with my disability and during my darkest days, including the loss of my father to a heart attack in 2016. Now I was thrilled to call him my husband.
We minimooned in Disneyland Paris, then honeymooned in Aruba a few months later, and enjoying myself, I indulged in wonderful food and cocktails.
Back home, with my wedding diet long gone, the pounds had crept on, and as I stood in front of the mirror one day, I felt disappointed knowing the hard work I’d have to put in to shed the weight I’d gained.
But I also knew that my body would change again soon, or at least I hoped it would. I’d always wanted children, but EDS put me at high risk of complications during pregnancy and birth. Even so, in January 2020, Oli and I started trying and by October, I was holding a positive pregnancy test.
TERRIFYING SYMPTOMS
While early scans revealed that the pregnancy was progressing normally, I felt anything but. Due to my EDS, I developed postural tachycardia syndrome, PoTS. It meant that during the first trimester, my heart stopped several times and I fell unconscious. Standing up quickly, my vision went black as I collapsed. Regaining consciousness after about 40 seconds, it was terrifying for both me and Oli. I knew that EDS could cause cardiovascular problems, and started going to the hospital for weekly monitoring to make s
