Myleene Klass 'turning pain into power' to campaign for better miscarriage care
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Myleene Klass has revealed she is campaigning for better miscarriage care for women, calling for medical intervention after every baby loss.
In 2020 Klass publicly shared that she had previously suffered four miscarriages and the following year made a documentary entitled Myleene Klass: Miscarriage & Me in a bid to break down the stigma around talking about pregnancy loss.
The former Hear’Say singer met with the Minister for Women’s Health, Maria Caulfield, yesterday at the Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Research in Birmingham to discuss the measures she would like to see introduced.
Now, the 45-year-old radio presenter is urging the government to ensure women receive medical intervention after every miscarriage. She is also calling for 24 hours specialist care and support for pregnancy and for data to be collected to understand the scale of the issue.
Read more: Women are fighting for paid leave after miscarriage, Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read
What is the current miscarriage care?
According to the NHS website, if a woman has had three or more miscarriages in a row then further tests will be given to understand the cause.
But, Klass is campaigning to change that so that investigations are completed after every miscarriage.
What are the proposed changes to miscarriage care?
The proposed changes, Klass says, will mean women will no longer have to "needlessly suffer both physically and mentally".
Klass says that a soon to be published pregnancy loss review, which looks at improving NHS gynaecology and maternity care, could provide a “massive” change if implemented.
“If the policy (does) include these changes, the face of women’s health care is going to change unrecognisably and it will be a wonderful time for our children and our children’s children to know that we made a movement happen that actually protected women’s health," she told PA News Agency.
She went on to add that she has been left feeling “very frustrated” after a “real David and Goliath” battle with the Government.
“I do find that women’s health is so far down on the agenda and it’s so misogynistic as to why it really is, from the tablets we are given to take, all the way through to the treatment that we receive, or rather the lack of treatment that we receive," she says.
“I think it’s pretty evident that we were told to just put up and shut up and that is not the world that we live in anymore.”
Read more: Rachel Weisz, Meghan Markle and Myleene Klass among celebrities to have shared their miscarriage experience, Yahoo Life UK, 6-min read
Read more: Miscarriage: What happens and where to find support, Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read
Klass continues that care for women going through miscarriages is not addressed as it is “taboo” and “makes people uncomfortable”.
“It’s so cruel when you have experienced the process of it, I’ve never done so much paperwork," she says.
“A little baby that never existed and yet the paperwork is excessive and you’re asking a woman to sign away… what do they refer to it as? The products of pregnancy, even our paperwork is incorrect.”
The singer and broadcaster pointed out that the difference between women receiving care in an early pregnancy unit are a “lottery” as in certain parts of the country the centres can be closed during certain hours and at the weekend.
“So this is something that is actually costing the economy more, because people are being sent to the wrong places and really desperately suffering with their PTSD," she says.
Klass adds her thoughts that one treatment, a steroid hormone called progesterone, should be administered to more women at risk and GPs should receive more training about the drug.
“If there is still a heartbeat and you’re bleeding (and) you are given progesterone, you’ve got a chance, I know this better than anybody because that’s how I had my son," she shares.
“Can you imagine if you do suffer a miscarriage you sometimes or very often have to wait for your GP to then sign you off to get the secondary scan? That means… you have to wait to have your baby removed.”
Additional reporting PA.
