Brittany Lincicome was getting ready to put daughter Emery down for a nap when she picked up the phone. They’d been at a neighbor’s pool party with the family dog Dexter. On Monday, she’ll fly to Las Vegas for the LPGA’s match play event at Shadow Creek, ready to get back to work.
Lincicome was supposed to be at the Pure Silk Championship at Kingsmill this week. Last Monday, her bags were packed, and her parents were set to drive her to the airport after a routine doctor’s visit at the 12-week mark of her pregnancy. The day prior, Lincicome had experienced light bleeding. She talked to her doctor and friends and everyone assured her it was probably fine.
The next morning, she began to have cramps every three minutes. Her husband, Dewald Gouws, decided to take off work to head to the appointment with her. They took two cars, with her parents following along for the airport run.
Lincicome, 35, had a miscarriage halfway to the door of her doctor’s office. Gouws ultimately rushed her to the emergency room to stop the bleeding. A heartbroken Lincicome posted about the loss on Instagram.
“My husband and I both know that God has plan for us,” she said. “There’s a reason why it happened, even though we don’t see it now.”
Lincicome was grateful that it didn’t happen when she was competing in Thailand and Singapore or on the long flight home. But then she also began to wonder if those trips had somehow caused the loss.
“I thought originally it was my fault,” she said. “Maybe the long flight did something. My doctor said, ‘There’s nothing you could’ve done to prevent this. This is just your body saying something was wrong.’ ”
Lincicome wants to share her story in the hope that other women who have experienced such loss can take encouragement from the fact that they are not alone. That it wasn’t her fault, and it’s not theirs either.
Lincicome and Gouws first started trying to get pregnant after she won in the Bahamas in January 2018. She got the good news at her beloved ANA Inspiration, where she’s won twice. When the couple went in for their eight-week appointment in late April, the doctor delivered devastating news. There was no heartbeat.
The next morning at 5 a.m., Lincicome went in for surgery.
“We cried for days and days,” she said.
Lincicome first told that story publicly in February 2019 after posting on social media that she was pregnant with Emery, who was born eight weeks early in July 2019.
“It’s a thing you can bundle it all up and depression can hit you quickly,” she said of losing a child, “and you don’t know what’s happening.”
She’s grateful to have a strong and supportive husband and friends on tour and in her community who have checked in often and delivered meals. When Lincicome pulled out of Kingsmill, it brought Moriya Jutanugarn, a late entry into the tournament who was at the bottom of the alternate list, into the field. Jutanugarn held a share of the lead going into Sunday’s final round.
Lincicome loves match play because she can be more aggressive. She’s only played 13 holes in a cart since leaving the hospital, but said that physically, she thinks she’ll be fine, as long as she doesn’t push it.
“I feel like I just want to get back to normal again,” she said, “get back to my normal routine.”