The long-awaited Women’s Health Strategy was published last week by the Government. Whilst this is promising in terms of formally recognising the huge gender health gap that exists, it is key that what is promised comes to fruition, and does not end up as a series of empty reassurances. Although the creation of a pre-payment… Continue reading Keep an eye on the Women’s Health Strategy
For those of you who missed it, towards the end of last year, NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) finally issued updated guidance on the use of progesterone in pregnancy that could lead to 8,450 more successful births a year. Based on a systematic review of research studies including the PRISM trial, it… Continue reading Progesterone progress
It’s the end of Baby Loss Awareness Week today, culminating in the International Wave of Light when people around the world light candles at 7pm in memory of babies they have lost. It’s a lovely collective thing to do and you can find out more from The Miscarriage Association or Tommy’s. But it’s ok if… Continue reading Wave of light
Going through miscarriage has been made even more traumatic due to the restrictions put on attending antenatal appointments and scans during the pandemic. A new book of poems, Healing After Miscarriage by Vicki Renz, aims to help process the feelings of grief and loss after such a difficult event, when it can be hard to… Continue reading Poetry for healing after miscarriage
Breaking news from Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Research at the University of Warwick is that a drug designed to tackle diabetes could also be re-purposed as the first treatment to prevent miscarriage by targeting the lining of the womb. Previous research found that women who experience recurrent miscarriages do not have enough stem cells… Continue reading Diabetes drug could be key to helping recurrent miscarriage
It’s the start of Baby Loss Awareness Week today and also a couple of weeks since I found out that I was in the group that received the endometrial scratch as part of the SiM trial I took part in in mid-2016. This means that the procedure could have helped sustain my pregnancy with Gus,… Continue reading Scratching the surface
I took progesterone during and in preparation for both my successful pregnancies. It was hard to get prescribed, and often dismissed by doctors as ineffective. So I was really pleased to see that the PRISM research trial in partnership with Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Research has finally provided clear evidence as to the benefits… Continue reading PRISM trial proves progesterone does work
Following on from last week’s post on pregnancy loss support, many research projects are helping to make leaps forward in understanding the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of pregnancy loss, and finding new treatments for prevention. The cell-free fetal DNA study is investigating whether analysis of cell-free fetal DNA could help ascertain genetic reasons for early miscarriages. Women… Continue reading Blog series post #2: Breakthroughs in miscarriage research
To start the year (albeit a bit late – I’ve only just recovered from Christmas meltdown season), I thought a series of blog posts would encourage me to actually make time to blog, whilst also covering a selection of research and campaign issues that I think are important to highlight. In this first post of… Continue reading Blog series post #1: Progress in pregnancy loss support
I went to see the writer David Sedaris this weekend on his latest book tour. Amongst the memories he recalled were of people who had stood out at after-show signings. Two days ago, he remembered, he met a lovely Japanese woman. As his latest book is a collection of diary entries, he asked whether she… Continue reading Together for change
My Beautiful Diary of the Amazingly Mundane 