Sheffield MP Olivia Blake makes heartbreaking Commons speech about her miscarriage and calls for better support services

She took to social media to say that the Government appeared to be moving away from recommendations that she had argued must be included in its new Women’s Health Strategy when she took the difficult decision to speak publicly about her own experience of miscarriage in a bid to fight for changes to health services.

On Twitter, she said: “Instead of honouring its commitments to recording miscarriage data & 24/7 care, the document offers little in the way of concrete reform.”

In June 2021 the Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam secured a debate on recommendations that came out a of a report in medical journal The Lancet, based on research by the National Centre for Miscarriage Research, run by children’s charity Tommy’s.

At that time the Government committed to including two of the three of the report’s recommendations into their strategy, including a record of national miscarriage data and 24/7 care and support for those who have experienced miscarriage, including follow-up mental health support.

This week Olivia Blake told the Commons: “There have certainly been times, including now, when it has been very difficult for me to talk about my experience of miscarriage — an experience that is shared by one in five women and that happens in one in four pregnancies.

“Last year, I held a debate and got the Government to agree to support some of the measures in the review on miscarriage in The Lancet, named Miscarriage Matters.

“The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists now supports abandoning the three-miscarriage rule in favour of a stepped response and graded model of care.

Miscarriages ‘too often put in the ‘too hard to deal with’ box’

“However, I want to know whether the other things promised at the end of that debate are included in this strategy. The first was access for everyone to 24/7 care.

“The second was data and recording of miscarriage on medical records; when I was called for my flu jab and asked why I had been called, the nurse said, “Because you’re pregnant,” then looked down and said, “Oh, well, you’re not, are you?”

“The third was stopping the need for unnecessary miscarriages by making the care better; we can prevent miscarriage in some cases even when it is beginning, and stop people having multiple miscarriages and having to live with this pain, increasing their risk of suicide.

“We could do so much more. Miscarriages are taboo and too often they are put in the ‘too hard to deal with’ box.

“A certificate would be lovely, yes, but that is not enough. We need adequate care that rapidly reduces the need for people to go through this trauma again and again.”

During her speech the MP was clearly close to tears and had to pause to get her breath.

New Health Minister Steve Barclay replied: “The heart of the whole House goes out to the hon. Lady, because the trauma of those experiences is so visible; I am hugely grateful for the powerful way she highlights them to the House.

He said an upcoming pregnancy loss review will “look at the important issues she raises”.

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