Read on Twitter
Right so a quick thread about this story and the reaction to it (on its own thread), before I get back to interviewing my fifth woman this week about real life experiences of miscarriage. https://twitter.com/abcnews/status/1346359197449895936
Firstly, the story is clumsy but I absolutely didn't read it as in ANY WAY suggesting that the bumpy road was the blame for her miscarriage. More that the misinformation and lack of clear direction during the closures is resulting in real-life consequences for people in need.
And we know that people ARE being given confusing directions and misinformation at the borders because the information is not flowing through freely to the workers manning those borders, including police. It's a public interest story, no doubt.
However miscarriage is an extremely complicated and nuanced issue and to use this case study in such a clumsy way has resulted in serious trauma for people like me reading those comments. Bc when you experience loss, these are the kinds of things that are said to you:
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To clarify: I had nausea and bloating from implantation (when the pregnancy hormone hCG starts being produced) with all my pregnancies (9 in total). Of course not all women know they're pregnant at 4wks - some don't know at 6 months - but she did know.
Inherent in these responses is the age-old suggestion that miscarriage isn't really loss. I EXIST TO TELL YOU THAT IT IS LOSS. Medical studies show that miscarriage (loss <20 weeks) can result in: depression, PTSD, anxiety and can affect they way we parent subsequent children.
Also, ALMOST ALL MCs are caused by things beyond our control. A raft of accusatory suggestions that she may have done something to cause it, reinforces the ridiculous belief that there is FAULT in miscarriage: IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED LOSS PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS IS *WRONG*.
I spoke to a woman THIS WK who was pushed so far into depression by her MC that she almost took her own life. I understand what the ABC was attempting with this story, but it needed more clarity and more precision in order to avoid the EXACT responses we have seen on this thread.
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