“Let’s delete the expression ‘miscarriage’, because there is nothing wrong and everything is true”. Here are the harsh words of devoted women who have decided to break the omerta about this natural phenomenon that is still too taboo and guilt-ridden in our society.
Every year in the world 15% of pregnant women lose their baby before delivery, or 44 miscarriages per minute. So, if this event affects so many women, why is it so minimized in our society? Here’s the welcome rant launched by the “Miscarriage, Real Experience” collective.
This Sunday, March 27, Judith Aquien, Fanny de Font-Réaulx, Mathilde Lemiesle, Sandra Lorenzo, Anna N’Diaye, Paloma Stefani and other devoted women published a column in The world to question the taboo surrounding the loss of the fetus.
Eight proposals
They are therefore calling on people to stop using the phrase “miscarriage”, which gives the impression that it is a voluntary act, and therefore, makes parents feel guilty. But that’s not all, they also campaign for better awareness and support tailored to each person. Here are the collective’s 8 demands (to discover in full here):
- set up one national multimedia information campaign in natural termination of pregnancy.
- set up one 100% paid work stoppage at least 3 days for women and their husbands who have gone through this ordeal.
- Increased hospital budget to allow for better management of natural terminations of pregnancy, as well as an increase in staff numbers and the creation of dedicated places in the maternity ward.
- Creation of training for obstetricians and gynaecologistswith the participation of knowledgeable patients to provide better medical care to women who have lost their babies.
- Integration into SVT programs and sex education classesfrom high school, teaching about natural pregnancy terminations (causes and manifestations).
- making available a booklet about natural terminations of pregnancy in all maternity wards, PMIs and GP practices, obstetricians and gynaecologists, for women and their loved ones.
- Offer the possibility of a psychological follow-up reimbursed for patients and their spouses to help them get through this event and think calmly about a future pregnancy.
- Creation of a green number dedicated to women and their husbands during natural terminations of pregnancy.
Excerpts from the forum:
“We have all been confronted with the omerta associated with miscarriages. To this violent and insidious silence. Together we decide to fight against this isolation and to break this taboo. A miscarriage is a social problem, a possible stage of motherhood that does not have to be hidden. Let’s recognize it.”
“By the way, let’s start with the words. Let’s put an end to the phrase “having a miscarriage” that makes you feel guilty and invisible. Because nothing is wrong, and everything is true. Because we don’t “cause” miscarriages, but suffer them. And that words weigh on our minds, dictate our thoughts and influence our actions. Let’s talk about ‘natural termination of pregnancy’. Because that’s what it’s all about and what we experience in our bodies.”
“Going through a natural termination of pregnancy is still too common to be confronted with a doctor who tells us that the event is ‘banal’ without recognizing its absolute peculiarity, that ‘nature is well done’, and who takes us home without explanation. sends or follow-up, to expel our embryo to the toilet.”
To read the entire forum, go here and to sign the petition, it’s here.