Over the coming weeks, The Fertility Podcast is sharing a series focused on Miscarriage and we will continue to share the conversations and resources here in more detail. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. You can do it via your favourite podcast app or click one of the buttons on this website. Or click here
Episode 1 – The Psychological Impact
Dr Jessica Farren is an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Imperial College Health Care Trust and we spoke about her involvement in research which was published earlier this year. Jessica looked at the psychological impact of early pregnancy events and in particular miscarriage. You can read more about Jessica here and listen to the episode. Plus you can reach her research paper here
Episode 2 – Dealing with your Loss
We spoke with Jen Coates, Director of Bereavement at Sands – which has many groups across the UK run by trained bereaved parents, known as Befrienders to provider peer to peer support. They have a national helpline and have recently developed a bereavement support app to compliment all their services. They have an online community and as the voice of bereaved parents across the UK they have people interested in supporting research and influencing policy makers.
Episode 3 – Talking about your loss
In this episode, Katy Leeson, Managing Director of Social Chain who also hosts a podcast called ‘I Shouldn’t Say This But’ talked about her experience of early miscarriage, the grief, the impact on her work and her fears about how opening up would affect her career and then her decision to use her popularity on social media to talk about what she had been through.
Episode 4 – What support is available for you in hospital
This is a conversation with Louise Zeniou from Cradle who has a personal experience of what it feels like to go through early pregnancy loss when she became ill and diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy. As she was so ill, she was rushed into hospital and had surgery immediately. She talks about the amazing care she received, but after surgery, she missed the most basic of items such as a toothbrush and a hairbrush. She started the Comfort Bag Project with the aim to support hospitals, so that in those early moments of pregnancy loss women and men can be provided with toiletries and other products to give them a little comfort and importantly dignity
Episode 5 – Life after Stillbirth
Frankie Brunker’s route to parenthood started really quickly after conceiving in the first month of trying however, devastatingly their daughter was born stillborn at 38 weeks. Frankie talks about her experience of giving birth at the hospital and how she felt that some of the midwives had limited experience of caring for a mother delivering a stillborn baby, and that she felt there were gaps in the bereavement care she and her husband received. As a result of her experience, Frankie is now the author of a beautiful children’s book called These Precious Little People to help explain baby loss to children but also Frankie says the book helps adults to come to terms with grief too.
Episode 6 – Saying Goodbye with Support
Zoe Clarke-Coates. Zoe is the co-founder of the award-winning charity ‘The Mariposa Trust’ (widely known by the name of its primary division called sayinggoodbye.org) and the author of 3 books, which are essential reading for anyone who is grieving. Zoe is also the co-chair of the Government’s National Pregnancy Loss Review. Zoe’s interview is essential listening if you are, or have experienced baby loss, no matter whether this is recently or years ago. We talk about the support Zoe’s charity offers, how miscarriage care is changing for the better and how it is possible to move forward with hope and joy for the future.
Episode 6 – Why does Miscarriage happen?
Our final episode focuses on why miscarriage happens and we are in conversation with Dr Ingrid Granne – Senior Research Fellow in Reproductive Medicine and a Consultant at The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where Kate also worked a few years ago. We talk about the common causes of miscarriage, research being done, investigations into recurrent miscarriage and we talk about progesterone and baby aspirin.
Useful resources:
Please do send any questions you have on anything we’ve discussed here to info@thefertilitypodcast.com
