Why Influencer Karissa Collins Is Letting Her ‘Body Do Its Thing’ During Miscarriage Amid Backlash

Parenting influencer Karissa Collins is detailing how she is coping with pregnancy loss in the midst of online backlash.

“I am currently, possibly, still pregnant with a missed miscarriage baby,” Collins, 41, said in a Thursday, July 17, TikTok video. “I have not fully miscarried the baby, which I found out about a month ago. I have been carrying this miscarriage … anywhere from four to six weeks.”

She added, “The baby passed six weeks ago, but it takes a long time for your body to figure it out.”

Karissa announced in a since-deleted TikTok video earlier in July that she and her husband, Mandrae Collins, were expecting their 12th baby. She later revealed that she had suffered a pregnancy loss, her fourth miscarriage overall.

“I found out in the ER about six weeks ago that there was no baby. I spent a lot of time mourning,” Karissa recalled. “I mourned this pregnancy for a while. I took a good two weeks off, got really close to God … and you want to know if you did anything wrong. I went through all those feelings.”

Karissa then went to visit her OB-GYN, who claimed “there was a baby,” but it did not have a heartbeat. The fetal tissue subsequently started to “disintegrate.”

“It takes your body a while to figure out that you don’t have a viable pregnancy and to expel [the tissue],” the social media personality explained. “There are three options that doctors give you. They give you the option of letting your body do what your body does, [which it] will expel the pregnancy … [or] the abortion pill, and the third option is a D&C.”

Karissa, who had several D&Cs in the past, opted to allow the fetal tissue to pass on its own this time.

“I always opt for letting my body do its thing,” Karissa said. “Miscarriage is not cut and dry. It’s not black and white. I think people think that when you miscarry, it’s [like], ‘Oh, it’s all gone and it’s done, and you go on with your life.’ But, you don’t. A lot of women have missed miscarriages. … It can go weeks and months.”

She continued, “At all costs, I say, ‘Always let your body do what it was meant to do. Don’t do any interventions unless an emergency is necessary.’ … I just believe the healthiest option is to do what your body was created to do.”

As Karissa dealt with her pregnancy loss, she shared a since-deleted video of several of her younger children playfully hitting her belly, which sparked widespread backlash from social media users.

“I apologize. When I posted that video, what was on other people’s minds was not on my mind at all,” she said on Thursday. “I never thought of it that way. It was a cute moment with me and my children. I didn’t think anyone would even watch it.”

Karissa noted that her kids had been squeezing her belly “like Slime and Squishmallows” as if it were a sensory toy.

“t was the funniest thing. I never wanted to forget that moment of them finding so much joy in my belly,” Karissa said. “They were not hurting me. They were not hurting anything inside of me.”