The UK government responded to our petition in Parliament to improve miscarriage care

On 17 June 2021, Olivia Blake, MP for Sheffield Hallam raised the findings of our Miscarriage Matters research in Parliament with the health minister, Nadine Dorries.

Leading experts from our National Centre for Miscarriage Research and the University of Birmingham recently laid bare the devastating impact of miscarriage and set out recommendations to improve treatment and care in a series of 3 articles published in The Lancet.

On the back of the research findings and recommendations, we have been urgently calling on the UK government to improve miscarriage care, in particular to stop making women go through 3 miscarriages before getting support and to get personalised care sooner for women at higher risk.

Thanks to over 175k of our incredible supporters signing our petition, the UK government responded in an Adjournment Debate in Parliament on 17 June. 

Olivia Blake, MP for Sheffield Hallam raised the findings of our research with the UK health minister, Nadine Dorries.

Watch Olivia Blake MP in Parliament

In response, the Minister announced:

  • Miscarriages will be counted and this will be included in the Women’s Health Strategy
  • 24/7 availability of emergency miscarriage services will be a priority in the Women’s Health Strategy
  • The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) will implement the findings of our research in the Green-top Guidelines – these are the guidelines which help clinicians and patients to make decisions about treatment
  • The Minister will visit our National Centre for Miscarriage Research in Coventry to meet our researchers and some of the families we support

“I am really impressed with the 112,000 women who have taken the time to respond to our women’s health strategy, and I believe that Tommy’s must be equally impressed with the response that it has had from women. Women are really standing up and making their voices heard, because projects such as these are giving them the opportunity to do so.”

– Nadine Dorries

Professor Arri Coomarasamy, Director of our National Centre for Miscarriage Research and study author of our Miscarriage Matters research, along with our team, will work with the government to ensure that these recommendations are implemented. 

A huge thank you to everyone who signed our petition calling for change, to everyone who shared their stories with us, and to everyone who has supported our campaign in any way – we couldn’t do this without you. Together, we will change the miscarriage story. 

To stay updated as the campaign progresses, please make sure to add your name to our petition if you haven’t already, so we can stay in touch. We now need to work with the government and NHS to ensure our recommendations are put into practice. There’s still time for your voice to be heard.

Find out more about our #ChangeTheMiscarriageStory campaign