NHS adds word ‘women’ to its online guidance on miscarriage

Update to online advice comes in wake of outcry on social media as NHS refers to ‘pregnant people’

THE NHS has reworded some of its online guidance after criticism of a passage which referred to those who suffer a miscarriage as pregnant “people”, rather than “women”.

The update to the website follows a backlash from critics who said the original wording “excludes women from the narrative” of what can be a painful and traumatic experience.

The change by NHS Digital was made to their online guidance for those who suffer a miscarriage.

The wording originally referred to “people who know they are pregnant”, adding reccurrent miscarriages “only affects about one in 100 people”.

But the passage about miscarriage, on the Overview page, has since been updated to include the word “women”.

In another, unchanged section, titled Causes, it states: “In most cases, a miscarriage is a one-off event and most people go on to have a successful pregnancy in the future.” Meanwhile, the Emotional impact section on the Afterwards advice page separately refers to “people” and “men”. It states: “Many people affected by a miscarriage go through a bereavement period... Your partner may also be affected by the loss.

“Men sometimes find it harder to express their feelings, particularly if they feel their main role is to support the mother and not the other way round.”

In the Getting Support section on the same page, it is advised: “There are support groups that can provide or arrange counselling for people who have been affected by miscarriage.”

The word “woman” is used five times on the Causes page, where guidance refers to statistics.

The format caused a stir online, with author Milli Hill saying: “It’s almost like they’re trolling us.” Another social media user, who claimed to be a midwife, said: “As a midwife who specialises in early pregnancy and loss, this actually makes me so angry on behalf of the women I support. After the tragedy they have to endure to then be erased from the narrative is abhorrent and so very wrong.”

NHS Digital confirmed to The Daily Telegraph that it had made an update to its miscarriage overview page, “to clarify a statistic”. A spokesman said: “We keep the pages under continual review to ensure they use language that is inclusive, respectful and relevant to the people reading it.”