So your friend decides to forget the “12-week rule” and instead he tells family and social networks that they are pregnant. They know the stats – “one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage” – but the couple wants to have the support of family and friends around them in case they need it.
Even if they now have other children, a child (or children) lost does not just get forgotten. The one in four statistic does not mean that one in four women will have a miscarriage, but that in all pregnancies, 25 percent of them will end in grief.
So what if then the worst happens: his wife/partner miscarries. And the couple will soon discover that many people around them, including health-care professionals, lack sensitivity when talking about the miscarriage. Some don’t even acknowledge the loss.
Families that experience pregnancy loss deserve higher standards of care.
More statistics: Around one in every 200 births is a stillbirth or neonatal death. Then, there are many other couples who have to end a much-wanted pregnancy because of a diagnosis of fetal problems or because…
