“Let’s get rid of the phrase “having a miscarriage”, because nothing is wrong, and everything is true..” In 2022, in France, one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage in the first twenty-two weeks of amenorrhea, i.e. during the first trimester, details the platform signed by the collective “Fausse layer, true experience” in the columns of Worldthis Sunday, March 27, 2022. In total, 200,000 women go through this ordeal each year.
And yet, the subject is still deeply taboo. Instead of talking about miscarriage, the collective is campaigning to talk about a “natural termination of pregnancy” instead. “Because we don’t have miscarriages, but experience them. And that words weigh on our minds, dictate our thoughts and influence our actions. Let’s talk about natural pregnancy terminations. Because that’s what it’s all about and what we live in our bodies“, confide the authors of this text. For them, the expression miscarriage “guilt and invisibility“.
A traumatic event that is still too often trivialized
“Having a natural pregnancy termination is a traumatic event for many women.“, recalls the tribune. Contractions, bleeding sometimes abundant and which can last several days, extreme loneliness, total silence, feeling of emptiness… The physical and psychological consequences are numerous and sometimes heavy. guilt and shame to his own situation.
“To undergo a natural termination of pregnancy is still too often to face a health practitioner who tells us that the event is “banal” without recognizing its absolute singularity.“, hammer the editors. The women who are victims of it are sometimes victims of brutal, dehumanizing words and in the worst case of gynecological and obstetrical violence according to the collective.
“In 2022, the natural termination of pregnancy is still a phenomenon that is still insufficiently supported within our society. It is not associated with any support protocol, with too few training sessions for health practitioners, and with no specific rights at the HR level. The natural termination of pregnancy is so invisible that we do not even know how to talk about it or how to support it. The lack of information at the scale of society plunges individuals into immense loneliness and can leave the mark of a trauma sustainable among women and their spouses”indicates the text.
A 100% paid work stoppage like in New Zealand
So that this event”anything but trivial“in the life of a woman is better taken into account, the collective has made several requests, in particular the establishment of a national information campaign on natural terminations of pregnancy and the creation of a toll-free number dedicated to women and their spouses.
Training and knowledge around the natural termination of pregnancy must also be improved. The collective asks that in all maternities, PMI and medical practices, booklets on natural pregnancy termination are made available couples, but also to set up training for midwives and gynecologists in order to allow better care for women. And education also goes through schools: everything related to natural pregnancy termination should be included in the SVT program in sexuality education courses, starting in college.
Finally, and above all, the collective “Miscarriage, true experience” asks for the implementation of a 100% paid work stoppage of at least three days for women who have gone through a natural termination of pregnancy, as well as for their spouse, as is already the case in New Zealand. And also to offer reimbursed psychological follow-up to help them get through this painful event.
Sources:
- “Let’s get rid of the phrase ‘having a miscarriage’, because nothing is wrong, and everything is true”, The worldMarch 27, 2022
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- Miscarriage: it would be linked to changes in the vaginal microbiome
- Bleeding during pregnancy: is it serious or not?
- Here’s a new reason to quit smoking during pregnancy (and even before)
