pregnancy: نوفمبر 2020

الاثنين، 30 نوفمبر 2020

Reframe how we talk about miscarriage | Letter

Jean Simons on the Duchess of Sussex’s experience and how we can start a conversation about grief or loss

The Duchess of Sussex deserves every sympathy for revealing her experience of miscarriage, but I remain doubtful that her expressed desire to “normalise conversations around miscarriage” will be easily achieved, given the apparent and continuing “pervasive taboos” around the subject, described by Zeynep Gurtin (Miscarriage is still taboo – which is why Meghan’s words are so powerful, 26 November).

Meghan’s advice to approach anyone suffering grief or loss, rather than ignoring them, and to open an opportunity for them to speak about their experience, is spot-on. But the “three little words” that she advises, “Are you OK?” (Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, reveals she had a miscarriage, 25 November), play into our reluctance to open up about feelings, provoking the response, “Yes, I’m fine”. Reframing those three words into the more open “How are you?” may give a grieving person the sense that you really do want to know, and the confidence to reply honestly.
Jean Simons
Lewisham, London

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الخميس، 26 نوفمبر 2020

Miscarriage is still taboo – which is why Meghan's words are so powerful | Zeynep Gurtin

The mixed reaction to her speaking up proves that there’s a long way to go before women feel comfortable sharing their pain

Yesterday, the Duchess of Sussex became the latest public figure to reveal her membership of a secret club that no one wants to join. In a piece that was rapidly read around the world, Meghan described the July morning on which she suffered the miscarriage of her second pregnancy and the “almost unbearable grief” she and her husband have experienced. “I knew,” she writes, “as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second.” It is an arresting image, unusual in its representation of the two opposing truths about reproduction – nurturing new life on the one hand, loss and death on the other – in such close proximity to each other.

Although miscarriages are surprisingly common – experienced by approximately one in four women – there continue to be pervasive taboos around the subject. This is partly because around 85% of miscarriages occur within the first trimester, before most women publicly announce their pregnancies. This leaves many, like Meghan, mourning the loss of a much-wanted baby that no one even knew about. The infertility activist Katy Lindemann has called the early months “a sort of Schrödinger’s pregnancy”, when women are expected to hedge their bets and accept miscarriages without a fuss. She points out that the 12-week rule imposes an unnecessary and harmful secrecy around pregnancy loss, leaving women to cope alone just when they most need support and community.

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الأربعاء، 25 نوفمبر 2020

Baby loss charities call for cultural shift to break silence around miscarriage

Charities praise Meghan, Duchess of Sussex for speaking openly about her experience

Baby loss charities have called for a cultural shift to empower couples to talk more openly about pregnancy before their 12-week scan, in an effort to break the silence around miscarriage.

Baby loss experts praised the Duchess of Sussex for speaking openly about having had a miscarriage and said that too often women and their partners still felt stifled and silenced by outdated cultural norms.

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Meghan Markle reveals she had a miscarriage

Duchess of Sussex writes about her grief and pain in losing a baby, and addresses the stigma of miscarriage

The Duchess of Sussex has revealed her grief after suffering a miscarriage, in an article that speaks to loss and the importance of asking about others’ welfare in times of pandemic and polarisation.

Meghan shared the devastation that she and Prince Harry felt after she lost a baby in July and was admitted to hospital.

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الاثنين، 16 نوفمبر 2020

Mothers needlessly separated from babies under UK hospital Covid rules

Restrictions are causing trauma and increasing risk of physical and mental health problems, warn doctors and charities

Mothers are being needlessly separated from their babies under strict hospital restrictions introduced to stop the spread of Covid-19, doctors and charities have warned.

The measures preventing UK parents from staying with their babies when one or both require hospital treatment are causing trauma and increasing the risk of physical and mental health problems, it is claimed.

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الجمعة، 13 نوفمبر 2020

'I can't fail Mary': the bereaved man fighting for pregnant women threatened by Covid

Ernest Boateng lost his wife Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong shortly after the birth of their second child after she tested positive for coronavirus

Before the pandemic struck, Ernest Boateng and his wife, Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong, were planning for the future. She was expecting their second child and – after her maternity leave – wanted to become a specialist diabetes nurse; Ernest hoped to join the RAF.

But as the virus tore through the UK, Mary became ill. On 7 April she was admitted to Luton and Dunstable university hospital, where she worked as a nurse, with shortness of breath. She tested positive for coronavirus and was taken to theatre for an emergency caesarean section. Her baby, five weeks early, was born alive. But after five days fighting Covid and pneumonia in intensive care, Mary died, aged just 28. Ernest was suddenly alone, with a premature newborn, and his two-year-old son to look after.

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الخميس، 12 نوفمبر 2020

Alcoholic anaesthetist jailed for killing Briton during caesarean birth in France

Helga Wauters imprisoned for three years and banned from practising after death of Xynthia Hawkes

An alcoholic anaesthetist who botched an emergency caesarean operation leaving a young British mother dead has been sentenced to three years in prison and banned from practising medicine.

Helga Wauters, 51, was found guilty of manslaughter after pushing a breathing tube into 28-year-old Xynthia Hawke’s oesophagus instead of her windpipe. Even after Hawke cried out in pain, vomited, turned blue and went into cardiac arrest, the anaesthetist, who admitted she had an alcohol problem and had been drinking since early morning on the day of the operation, failed to react.

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الأربعاء، 11 نوفمبر 2020

Twenty doctors threaten to quit over baby deaths at Blacktown hospital

Government review underway following the death of four babies in less than two years

About 20 obstetricians have threatened to resign from Blacktown hospital in western Sydney, as a government review is underway into the safety of the hospital’s birthing and maternity service following the deaths of four babies in less than two years.

The extensive review is being conducted by the New South Wales Health chief obstetrician and the Clinical Excellence Commission. It commenced in late August after Blacktown hospital confirmed that of about 6,000 babies delivered in the 18 months prior, four unexpected neonatal deaths had occurred. The final report is expected “soon”, Blacktown hospital general manager Ned Katrib told Guardian Australia.

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الخميس، 5 نوفمبر 2020

UK government urged to protect pregnant women in second Covid wave

Husband of new mother who died in April says women past 20 weeks should be allowed to work from home

The husband of a nurse who died of Covid-19 just days after giving birth to their daughter has pleaded with the prime minister to protect other pregnant women, as research reveals they are being put at greater risk during the second wave of the pandemic.

Ernest Boateng, whose wife, Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong, died on 12 April after contracting the virus, said he didn’t want his wife’s “death to be in vain”, and called on the government to make it a legal requirement for employers to allow all pregnant women who pass 20 weeks gestation to work from home or be suspended on full pay.

57% of pregnant women did not feel safe at work

A quarter of employers who had done a risk assessment were not following it

54% of pregnant women did not understand their legal rights if they feel unsafe at work

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