P.R & Breaking The Taboo of Miscarriage.

As you've probably seen we have had a lot of publicity this week. Which has been great exposure for The Pink Elephants Support Network and our work supporting couples who experience early pregnancy loss and fertility struggles. P.R is important not only to help us achieve our mission that no couple should walk the journey of miscarriage alone but to help us break the taboo & stigma commonly associated with miscarriage. It's 2019 and its time miscarriage came out of the shadows and that women and their partners receive the empathy and understanding they deserve after losing their baby to miscarriage.

In Australia 103,000 couples a year report a miscarriage, 1in 3 women will experience an early pregnancy loss in her lifetime. Despite these astoundingly HUGE statistics we are still not very good at talking about miscarriage its a common thread in our online support communities.

Some of the feedback we received after the last few days where

"So so so great. Pregnancy loss is finally being spoken about on morning tv because of your amazing work" @heartspacebook

"I loved the segment! And really LOVE that this topic, as well as women's health, in general is no longer taboo."

As we covered on the segment the majority of women we surveyed in collaboration with The University of Melbourne still feel unsupported through early pregnancy loss. They are not receiving referrals for emotional support from organisations such as ours because miscarriage loss isn't validated as real grief its often termed disenfranchised. The real danger being that women then internalise their grief and it manifests as PTSD, anxiety and/or depression later.

We believe this is because as a society we aren't talking about the true impact of miscarriage and early pregnancy loss, or of the repeated failed cycles of IVF that thousands of couples are enduring right now. We need to talk about things that are hard to ensure we are supporting those around us going through this. As no matter how hard you might find that conversation it is nowhere near as painful as going through loss of infertility feeling like no one cares.

If you want to educate your self on what to say download our popular resource Use Your Words.

Is your work place supporting your people in the right way? Is there room for improvement have a look at our new Fertility in the Workplace program.

If you're struggling and need support head to our website.