Miscarriage Care Debate
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Baroness Boycott
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Miscarriage Care
Baroness Boycott Excerpts(2 months, 1 week ago)
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Baroness Merron (Lab)
This is an extremely important area, and I acknowledge very much that the current situation is not working for women or their families. To emphasise, we very much welcome the report from Tommy’s miscarriage centre at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital, which is about the effectiveness of its piloted model of sporadic or recurrent miscarriage care. I visited them when I first took office and was very taken by their work. I am glad they have reported, and, as confirmed in the women’s health strategy, we shall be looking very closely at this. It will deal with and refer to the point the noble Baroness makes.
Baroness Boycott (CB)
My Lords, one of the issues that is going to come out this week, through a welcome report on Wednesday, is the effect of heat on pregnancies—on miscarriage and on very small babies being born. It used to be thought that this affected only women in very hot countries, but it now is realised that it affects women subjected to heat they are not accustomed to. In other words, it is just as important here as it could be in the tropics. Given that a lot of science now says that we are entering an El Niño period, which could mean tremendous heat towards the end of this year, what are the Government doing to address this and give women advice about hydration, shade, et cetera?
Baroness Merron (Lab)
There are a number of causes of miscarriage, as I am sure the noble Baroness is aware, and it is helpful that she brings this point to our attention. In all areas it is very important that we give advice to women about how to manage their pregnancy to—I can only put it this way—minimise the possibility of miscarriage. There is another factor regarding pre-conception healthcare. Of course, many pregnancies are not planned, and our challenge is to ensure good health for women more broadly, in the ways I have described a number of times. But we will be looking at the point the noble Baroness raises.