Influencer Abby Howard revealed she and husband Matt Howard had an autopsy performed following their pregnancy loss last year.
“So, we had never done genetic testing prior to this pregnancy,” Abby, 27, said during her appearance on the Wednesday, June 10, episode of Taylor and Tay Lautner’s “The Squeeze” podcast. “So the initial thought was that there was a genetic something wrong that we didn’t know about. And then, as we got along the process more, the more I had to come to terms with [the fact] that I may never have an actual why for why this happened.”
Abby explained that with a late-term pregnancy loss, “you have to make decisions that you never, ever would think that you’re ever having to make.”
“Like, I mean, we had to make arrangements for what to do with her body,” she added. “We had to make arrangements for, like, do you want an autopsy? What type of autopsy do you want? … I just had this desire to preserve as much of her humanity as I could throughout this whole process.”
Abby said she and Matt, 27, opted to do “minimally invasive things,” including additional lab tests on Abby and a “visual” autopsy on their late baby girl.
“And we did hindsight genetic testing, and I kept getting met with the answer of like, ‘We’re not really getting a good reason for why any of this would have happened.’ So we don’t really know. And I am shocked by how upsetting it was for me for so long,” she continued. “Like, I just wanted a why.”
Abby also shared that she’s “hesitant” to share more details about the pregnancy loss online because she has “harbored so much blame” for herself despite medical professionals telling her it wasn’t her fault.
“All I can say, medically, there is no definitive answer,” she concluded.
Abby and Matt, who share sons Griffin, 3, and August, 2, announced in August 2025 that they were expecting their third baby. Weeks later, the couple revealed the tragic loss of their daughter.
“At a routine pregnancy appointment, our doctor could not find a heartbeat,” the pair wrote via Instagram. “Shortly after, they sent us in for an ultrasound where the technician said words we will never forget, ‘I am so sorry, I do not have good news.’ That is when we got the gender reveal we never hoped for, and also the news that our baby had a genetic condition that took her life around 17 weeks gestation.”
During her podcast appearance on Wednesday, Abby said that although she had learned about what to expect from early miscarriages, nobody had prepared her for what to expect of one later in her pregnancy. She had to return to the hospital the day after learning about the loss so that she could start the induction process.
“I always say that delivering our daughter was just … it was so eerily similar to, like, a live birth. You’re in the same unit as everyone else that’s having babies that are alive,” she recalled. “They have, like, an incubator across from you that you just know that you’re not gonna use. There’s no fetal monitoring of any kind. It’s just an experience that you wouldn’t wish on anyone. But it is an experience that has grown me like so, so much.”
Abby and Matt are now expecting their rainbow baby.
“baby #4 🌈,” the couple announced via Instagram in March. “Grateful beyond measure.”
