Myelin class This year I have considered the “blame culture” surrounding child loss in the UK New Year’s Honors for Services for women’s health and abortion awareness.
Addressing. freethe former Hear’Say singer and presenter said she was shocked when she received a letter two weeks ago saying she had Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)and that he read it aloud in his kitchen with his family.
46-year-old, who has lost four children. Abortionhas spent years campaigning for government change in abortion care and raising awareness of the psychological impact of child loss, as seen in her BAFTA-nominated documentary . Myelin: Abortion and Me.
After “four years of real sadness”, Klass was inspired to end the stigma surrounding child loss and campaign for better support for women who have had similar experiences.
The musician said the most shocking aspect of his research and campaign was the lack of government attention to the cause.
“It’s surprising how many people at the government level choose not to take it seriously,” he said free. “It feels like the message is loud and clear to us women and it’s been going on for centuries: Just get on with it. Our grandmothers did it, our mothers did it — we just don’t talk about it.
She continued: “People don’t want to talk about dead babies, understandably. But at the same time, women are suffering in silence, and if you walk into any room, half [women] In this room the child must have come into contact with some form of harm.
in the UK, Loss of a child Despite the fact that an estimated one in five pregnancies end in miscarriage, that could lead to more than 250,000 miscarriages each year. Miscarriage is defined as the loss of a pregnancy before 24 weeks.
“There’s no sense of isolation when you lose a child,” Klaas said. “Because one moment you have everything in the world and the next you walk out of the hospital after your D&C. [a surgical procedure post-miscarriage] And you have nothing.”
“No baby carrier, no baby. We walked into a home that was preparing for nursery, kids who were excited for siblings, grandparents who didn’t know whether to ask questions. They were sad. Looks that your friends give you. We don’t realize that it never stops for a woman.
Klass believes there is a culture of blame around abortion in the UK, which results in women being questioned about the loss of their baby as if it were their own fault. All this points to a lack of education on the subject, she says.
“We have such a culture of blame. Like, ‘What did you do? What did you eat? Did you drink that coffee? What did you pick up?’ We have a real fear of death in this country for saying the wrong thing and so we just don’t say anything, which is also the wrong thing to do.
Her main campaign is currently focused on overturning the current NHS rule which only introduces medical intervention after a woman has had three consecutive miscarriages.
“Imagine if I said. ‘You come back after your third heart attack and then we’ll see.’ You have to wait for three miscarriages in a row before any kind of medical intervention.”
“I’ve asked medical experts and they say there’s no reasonable explanation. For me, all four of my miscarriages were unrelated. So waiting hasn’t really proven that early intervention helps anything. .
In October, the government introduced a system for experienced parents Abortion Be able to apply for a certificate that recognizes their bereavement.
Although Klass considers child loss certificates a “keepsake,” she thinks they are a “placebo” for a broader problem of government inaction.
“It’s a pretty peaceful memorial for a lot of people, but for others who are still looking for medical intervention and answers, they need something concrete and we need data,” he said. “Certificates are not official government documents. When you can’t officially say it doesn’t go into your GP records, it doesn’t go into any kind of data.”
“It feels like we’re disrespecting these women, we’re almost giving them a placebo. It’s not enough,” she said.
Looking ahead to 2025, Klass said his main goal is to expose the data and urge the government to record it.
“For me, 2025 is data. We need to know how many women it’s happening to, why it’s happening, how it’s playing out in families, how it affects siblings more. And we need The need for education for young girls and boys to take care of their fertility and what to do when it goes wrong is far from over.”