When a woman loses a baby in utero, she is said to have had a miscarriage. A term to be banned according to a group of women who campaign for this traumatic event for a woman and her companion to be better taken care of.
Every year, 200,000 women have a miscarriage in France and one in four pregnancies ends badly during the first trimester. According to the prestigious medical journal The Lancet which published a report in April 2021 based on 9 large studies, 10.8% of women have had a miscarriage worldwide. An appalling figure which shows the reality of a real subject of society according to the collective Miscarriage, real life who published a punch column in the newspaper The world of March 27.
“Let’s put an end to the expression “having a miscarriage” which makes you feel guilty and invisible”
Judith Aquien, Fanny de Font-Réaulx, Mathilde Lemiesle, Sandra Lorenzo, Anna N’Diaye and Paloma Stefani, the six founders of the collective want the term miscarriage to be replaced by that of “natural termination of pregnancy”, in order to break the taboo that surrounds this ordeal. “Let’s finish with the expression “having a miscarriage” which makes you feel guilty and invisible. Because nothing is wrong, and everything is true. Because we don’t “cause miscarriages”, but suffer them“, write these women who add that “undergoing a natural termination of pregnancy is still too often to be faced with a health practitioner who tells us that the event is “ordinary” without recognizing its absolute singularity‘. “It is a time of fragility for women. Many of them say, for example, that they have suffered obstetrical violence. They may be poorly received in emergencies, less well considered. Especially since the care is done in the maternity ward, where we are surrounded by round bellies“, details Sandra Lorenzo, one of the founders of the collective in the Huffington Post.
Management of miscarriages: what does the collective demand?
Collective Miscarriage, real life so ask the creation of a national information campaign in order to raise awareness among the French about this delicate subject. He also asks the establishment of a paid work stoppage of at least 3 days for women but also their companion and the establishment of a psychological care reimbursed.
The collective would also like a booklet on natural pregnancy termination to be distributed in maternity wards and for this subject to be addressed during sex education lessons. Finally, its 6 founders demand that midwives and obstetrician-gynecologists be better trained and that the budget allocated to hospitals to support couples faced with a natural termination of pregnancy be increased. “The better we are accompanied, the more likely we are not to be traumatized“, insists Sandra Lorenzo whose tribune was signed by a hundred personalities. petition is available online to support the collective. To date, it has already collected more than 6,400 signatures.