'OITNB' star Laura Prepon Shares Painful Decision to Terminate Earlier Pregnancy

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Star of "Orange Is the New Black" Laura Prepon and her husband of nearly two years, Ben Foster, recently welcomed a healthy baby boy into their family, which already included 2-year-old Ella.

The couple's son was born in late February. His name has not yet been announced.

But Prepon shared some devastating pregnancy news in her new book, "You and I, as Mothers: A Raw and Honest Guide to Motherhood," which is expected to be released on April 7. In the book, she tells readers that she was forced to terminate an earlier pregnancy.

Gettyimages | Dia Dipasupil

She and her husband made the heartbreaking decision after learning during a sonogram at 16 weeks that the child she was carrying had a cystic hygroma, which is a fluid-filled sac that develops due to a blockage in the lymphatic system. Most common near the head or neck, the condition disrupts the normal development of the lymphatic system.

As Prepon wrote, "Our neonatal specialist told us the brain was not growing and the bones were not growing. We were told the pregnancy would not go to full term and that my body was at risk carrying any longer."

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It was then that the couple made the heart-wrenching decision to end the pregnancy.

She tells readers, "Ben held me as I cried. We had to terminate the pregnancy."

Prepon said the most difficult part was passing her first trimester without issue, only to learn the crushing news just after the baby's second trimester had started, a time when most people feel comfortable announcing pregnancies to family and friends. Prepon felt overwhelmed by guilt, and blamed herself for the prenatal injury.

"To get to the second trimester and then be told this awful news, I felt like a failure."

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She said those feelings of failure began when she was younger and were initially sparked when a modeling agent told her she needed to lose 15 pounds, advice that led to bulimia. "I felt like my body had failed and failed having another baby. The whole cycle of what’s wrong with my body came back."

Prepon, best known for her role as Donna Pinciotti in the sitcom "That '70s Show" and Alex Vause in the Netflix series "Orange Is the New Black," is a longtime Scientologist.

Gettyimages | John Lamparski

Prepon joined the church in 1999 and says that it has made her a much calmer, more relaxed person.

As she told the Scientology magazine "Celebrity" in a 2015 interview, "I remember I was doing a show with an amazing actor, and we were waiting to hear the fate of our show. He turned to me one day and asked, 'How are you always so relaxed? Nothing seems to bother you. I want to know what you are doing…' - I take that as such a compliment and testament to the auditing I have done."