Make Miscarriage Information Part of Sex Education
Hell yes.
Over in Scotland, women are calling for schools to add information about miscarriages into the sex education curriculum:
Now, charities and women have called for the issue to be discussed in schools as part of normal sex education classes, and say this would help future generations understand how to cope and remove any taboo surrounding it.
Raise your hand if you felt totally alone after a miscarriage? I remember once being with a group of women. One woman was talking about her miscarriage, and pretty much everyone in the room stepped forward with her own story, and the first woman cried something like, “Why didn’t you tell me before now? I felt so alone.” No person should go into family building without knowing this possibility.
If we’re telling kids about sex, STDs, and pregnancy, why aren’t we telling them about miscarriage, stillbirth, and neonatal death? Isn’t the whole point of education to prepare people? To impart knowledge? Why would we withhold important facts from a conversation? And while we’re at it; if we speaking about fertility, we should tell people about infertility. Let’s take the surprise and stigma away by making it an integral part of every person’s education.
Sending support over to Scotland and hoping we implement something here.
7 comments
yes. yes. yes. a thousand time yes!!!! I would have been better prepared to handle what was coming my way had I been able to have previous conversations about miscarriage.
YES. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be anything in-depth at that level, but introduce the subjects & normalize them — yes, these things are possible, here are some of the facts & stats ( = it’s more common than most people think), etc.
Yes to this idea! It doesn’t have to be super in-depth for teenagers, but it would be helpful to give the facts and explain that miscarriage is actually pretty common. Along with neonatal death and stillbirth, I also think some basic coverage of prematurity is important since around 9.5% of births in the US are premature. The signs of premature labor aren’t always super obvious or can dovetail with other, more normally benign symptoms like an achy back. A good overview of “symptoms or issues you should call the doctor about if you’re pregnant” in each trimester would be a great help.
I am pretty sure that every aspect of reproduction in the educational curriculum needs elaboration, but I doubt they even touch on any bad outcomes. Information about any of these things – miscarriage, stillbirth, ectopic pregnancy, neonatal death, premature babies – even that they exist! – would be so helpful in the lives of young women.
I’m guessing they don’t because they worry that teens will be less likely to use birth control (or abstinence in states like mine) or to seek prenatal care if they think it’s less likely they’ll stay pregnant. A lot of what I learned about reproductive health and drugs overemphasized unlikely bad outcomes, I think on purpose to scare kids into not even trying.
I’m pretty sure my high school did touch on ectopic pregnancy. (My state mandated reproductive health every 2 years starting in 5th grade.)
I think I knew the numbers growing up, at least about infertility and miscarriage. I suppose the facts are relatively taboo free in the Netherlands. the grief however a lot less so. As a teenager I even read about women being devastated by infertility, and I remember thinking that it was stupid to build an expectation of future happiness based on children if you didn’t know you could get them. (Also I failed to see how children would give “meaning” to someone’s life.)
So even growing up knowing the numbers (I’m a numbers girl) I was still unprepared for the emotional impact. Maybe my emotions were not laden with guilt or shame, or a feeling of being less of a woman, but even single straightforward sadness and grief hit me harder than I thought possible.
Hell Yes. You, and your commenters, have all said it so well. It needs to be talked about more.