Today the Government published their long-awaited Independent Pregnancy Loss Review, including recommendations to end the widely criticised “three miscarriage rule”, where women only receive medical investigation after their third consecutive miscarriage. It also includes a recommendation to deliver 24/7 access to miscarriage care for all women experiencing a miscarriage

It is estimated that there are 250 000 miscarriages in the UK every year. One in five women will experience at least one miscarriage in their lifetime, and one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage.

Yet support for women experiencing miscarriage is patchwork. Currently women must experience three miscarriages in a row before they can access support and tests to find out what is causing the loss. This means women with undiagnosed underlying health issues are forced to go through multiple, in many cases preventable, miscarriages before receiving treatment.

National miscarriage figures are also not recorded. This means that there is no way of knowing exactly how many miscarriages happen in the UK, so targets cannot be set for bringing the number of losses down. Miscarriage is also not currently recorded on women’s medical records.

The Review, which was first commissed in 2018, includes a number of reccomendations, including the introduction of a graded model of care for women who experiene multiple miscarriages, and 24/7 access to miscarriage care.

In response to the Independent Review, the Government has today committed to 20 short-term actions to improve miscarriage care, covering training, education, and public information. They have also committed to reviewing the clinical and financial requirements of implementing a graded model of care nationally.

For too long, miscarriage has been dismissed as “a fact of life”, something to be swept under the carpet, dismissed, and ignored. Over the coming days we will be looking in detail at the Review and the Governments’ response. But today marks a turning point. These changes will make an unimaginable difference to the 1 in 5 women who will experience miscarriage in their lives.

Speaking about my miscarriage and the experiences of the hundreds of women who have been in touch hasn’t been easy. I really didn’t think it would take this long and there have been times when I’ve wanted to give up. Finally it all feels worth it. I want to thank everyone who has shared their experience with me and joined the campaign. Without you, this would not have been possible.

We can’t stop here. We need a complete overhaul of the whole narrative about miscarriage. We must challenge the idea, which is ideological not evidence based, that miscarriage, like other women’s reproductive health issues, should be managed with minimal medical intervention. No woman should ever again be told to “just try again”. Only by doing this, will miscarriage research receive the attention and funding it deserves, and will we be able to begin to undo the unacceptable inequalities in maternal outcomes.

Special thanks to Myleene Klass and Tommy’s for all your work on this campaign and the 255,761 people who signed the Tommy’s petition.