Laura and the Boutique’s debut single and video powerfully convey how it feels for a woman to suffer a miscarriage. Sue Bradley meets singer Laura Bayston to find out how the song came to be

I NEVER held you, yet I feel you: it's a simple, seemingly contradictory statement but one that powerfully describes the hidden pain of those who lose babies during pregnancy.

The poignant video for My Loss, the debut single from solo artist Laura and the Boutique, makes uncomfortable viewing; bringing those watching it face to face with a situation that is only too real for many thousands of women every year, but about which little is spoken.

Singer Laura Bayston performs the song behind a series of masks, yet her large eyes cannot hide the sadness that lies behind the words.

The image neatly encapsulates life after a miscarriage: putting on a face for the outside world that bears little resemblance to the way somebody is feeling inside.

And Laura should know, for it was a poem she wrote after losing her own baby that has gone on to become the words of her haunting song.

There are still more than four weeks to go before My Loss is due to be released for downloading by her record company Ambiel Music, yet the excitement surrounding it is such that more than 1,500 people have already logged on to her website and youtube for a preview.

After watching the video, it's hard to equate the singer with the Laura of today, a bubbly mother-of-two from Cheltenham who is on the cusp of realising her ambition to be a successful recording artist.

In fact, there's an irony in the way that the song that has finally gained her a record deal is one that forces her to relive some of the saddest moments in her life, the pain of which still shows in her eyes when she recalls them.

Yet Laura hopes that in singing about her own experiences, she will be able to help the many women who have been, or are going through, similar ordeals and show them that they are not alone.

"My Loss is about a personal subject close to my heart that people always find hard to discuss," she says.

"I wanted to display the side we all have; the one that remains unseen by the outside world, the one we keep hidden behind a mask.

"I wanted people to feel uncomfortable watching the video because that's the way it is when somebody has a miscarriage: nobody talks about it. Your next door neighbour could be going through the pain of losing a baby and you wouldn't know."

Laura, who will be donating a percentage from the sales of her record to the Miscarriage Association, was three and a half months pregnant with her second child when a routine scan revealed that the baby she was carrying had died.

"We had told all our friends and family I was expecting," recalls Laura.

"I went for a routine scan and it was at that point that the doctors said they couldn't work out if the baby's heart had stopped beating, and that I had to return the following week.

"It was the worst week of my life: I still cannot bear November, which was the month it all happened.

"When I went into hospital for an operation I remember thinking that I wanted to come into hospital to have a baby, not to have one taken away.

"At the time it was the most heartbreaking thing."

After her miscarriage, Laura put on a brave face to the outside world, telling people she was fine and keeping busy by getting on with being a mum to her two-year-old daughter Ruby, now five, and wife to husband Mark. Yet all the time she was quietly grieving inside.

"I felt I had to put a mask on, to tell people that everything was great," says Laura. "But when you go home you fall apart. You're not fine."

Laura became pregnant again a few months after her miscarriage, going on to give birth to her younger daughter Ava, who is now three.

"If I hadn't had the miscarriage then I wouldn't have had Ava, that's the way I look at it," says Laura.

"The lyrics for My Loss started off as a bit of a poem that I wrote a year or so ago.

"They became a song after I had sent some material to a publisher and he had asked me if I had any more.

"I didn't have anything else to send him straightway but I sat down at the piano, stuck this poem in front of me and this was the result.

"It was My Loss that got me a publishing deal."

Laura worked with producer George Shilling to record her single. George, who lives in the Cotswolds, has previously worked with some of Britain's biggest music stars, including Steve Winwood, Ocean Colour Scene, Mike Oldfield and Lisa Stansfield.

The result is her compelling lyrics over a simple piano and cello accompaniment.

"We wanted to keep it simple – we didn't want any fancy stuff going on to detract from the poignancy of the song," she explains.

Laura worked with Richard Crompton of Herefordshire-based Monster Creative to make the video.

"Already I've received lots of emails from women who have suffered miscarriages saying that watching me singing My Loss has really helped them," she says.

Dagenham-born Laura, now 33, has always dreamed of being a singer and as teenager she attended Vocal Tech, now Music Tech, in London and completed a BTEC National Diploma in the Performing Arts.

But over the years she lost confidence in her abilities and went on to pursue other careers, including working in advertising at The Gloucestershire Echo and training to be an aerobics instructor.

Laura resumed her singing and song-writing career after being asked to sing at a wedding. Since then she has wholeheartedly made the most of a series of opportunities that have come her way, including providing a warm-up act for legendary singer Steve Winwood, who lives in Turkdean, near Northleach.

Later this year she will be performing at Cheltenham Fashion Week, for which Cotswolds-based couture designer Melissa Antonious is making her a special dress.

"For me it's been a long old road," says Laura.

"Along the way people have said to me that I'm too old to be doing what I'm doing, that I've got two children and I will never get to where I want to be.

"But to be honest I have life experience and that what counts if you're going to be a good song writer: it's things people can relate to."

Watch Laura's video for yourself by logging onto the: Laura and the Boutique official website My Loss is due to be available to download after March 23.