13 hours ago
Miscarriage experience: ‘I felt like an inconvenience and received no support'
Support, information, and empathy can be hard to find for those who have experienced a miscarriage.
That's according to the Irish Examiner and Ipsos B&A National Women's Health Survey, which revealed that six in 10 women who miscarried said the follow through from healthcare providers was poor.
Waterford City native Roisin Healy was aged 19 when she experienced a miscarriage: 'I was 11 weeks pregnant, and I started getting bad pains. I went into the hospital where they did a scan — they said they couldn't find a heartbeat and there was nothing they could do. They told me to go home and relax.'
This was in 2001, and Healy was alone — she'd just split with her partner and with little to no information, she was scared. This was her first and only pregnancy, so she didn't know what to expect.
She recalls: 'The pains continued and then I started bleeding very heavily. I went back to the hospital. I'll always remember that the doctor who examined me asked me why I was so upset. I had to have a D&C [dilation and curettage], and I had to stay in the hospital that night after the procedure. They put me in a maternity ward, so I was in a room with pregnant women, which was traumatic for me, and upsetting for those women too.'
This lack of sensitivity is not uncommon. A third of women in the survey who experienced a miscarriage said the empathy and sensitivity of healthcare professionals towards them was poor.
Lack of support
Nicola O'Connell from Dublin experienced a miscarriage in 2021.
She'd had a successful pregnancy in 2020 through IVF and had one remaining embryo from that round of treatment.
'About a year after my daughter's birth, we decided to have the embryo transferred. So I started the cycle, and it all went well — I got pregnant. We were delighted,' says O'Connell.
A follow-up home test confirmed her pregnancy, with the added information that she was just one week pregnant: 'By my calculations, it should have said four or five weeks. I called the fertility clinic the next morning, and they said to come in and they would do a blood test.'
O'Connell dashed across Dublin City to the clinic. As she hadn't eaten that morning, there was a problem taking her blood.
Nicola O'Connell. Photograph Moya Nolan
The delay and uncertainty left her crying in the clinic's hallway: 'I was in an awful state. People were walking past me, and the receptionist just stared at me. I felt like an inconvenience and received no support.'
They eventually managed to take her blood, and she returned to work, waiting for the results: 'I got a call around 3pm to say there was no pregnancy, and that I needed to come off all the medication I was on for that fertility cycle. My miscarriage was classed as an early or chemical miscarriage. I was told the doctor would call me within three to four weeks, but that call was all about the next round of treatment. Although the doctor kindly spoke to me about his own experience of miscarriage, there was no offer of counselling or psychological support.'
This lack of dedicated support or counselling for couples who experience miscarriage was felt by 58% of those surveyed by the Irish Examiner. Although there were 14,000 miscarriages in Ireland in 2024 (20% of pregnancies), publicly available counselling has only recently commenced for recurrent miscarriages. In most cases, women or couples who see a counsellor have to do so privately, and at a cost not everyone can afford.
The quality of care from healthcare providers was deemed poor by nearly half of those surveyed (46%).
The results from the Irish Examiner survey reflect the status quo in this area for decades.
For Jennifer Duggan, Miscarriage Association of Ireland chairperson, the figures align with the organisation's experience: 'They unfortunately tally with what we hear ourselves from women we speak with.'
Jennifer Duggan, Chairperson of the Irish Miscarriage Association at her home in Carrigaline, Co. Cork. Picture: David Creedon
But are changes starting to happen?
'There are definitely improvements being made, maybe not as fast as we would like to see change happening, but there are some improvements,' says Duggan.
One such development is that some maternity hospitals around the country are relocating their early pregnancy loss clinics: 'That will mean women experiencing a miscarriage won't have to go and sit in a waiting room full of pregnant women, knowing that they're miscarrying. They can go to the pregnancy loss clinic off-site.'
An Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) announcement on June 5 is another step forward. The IFPA has expanded its counselling service to include counselling for those who experience recurrent pregnancy loss. They can now be referred to specialist therapists at IFPA clinics nationwide by their local maternity hospital.
Previously, the definition of recurrent miscarriage was three consecutive miscarriages. That definition was modified in Ireland in 2023 to encompass those who have experienced two consecutive miscarriages.
Duggan says: 'The change means women can now access extra support and testing earlier, which is a significant improvement. Each miscarriage is a unique and painful loss, and the previous definition diminished the emotional impact of early pregnancy losses.'
Together with gaining access to investigation, this shift in the definition of recurrent miscarriage means women in Ireland can now access eight free sessions of specialised counselling at the IFPA.
Healy and O'Connell both struggled emotionally after their miscarriage experiences.
'The lack of psychological support offered to me was a real gap in the care I received after my miscarriage,' says O'Connell.
Healy says: 'I felt alone and embarrassed during the whole thing. The lack of support and information meant I thought there was something wrong with me, and I was left uncertain if I could ever have a child.'
Healy did not go on to have children.
Information gaps
The quality of information given to women either during or after a miscarriage is poor, according to 49% of the women surveyed.
Healy was simply given a phone number she could call if she had questions, but otherwise, she was sent home with little idea of what to expect.
Duggan explains: 'It can be really hard when you don't know what to expect. You might be told that you may bleed heavily, but you don't know how heavy is too heavy, or how painful is too painful. It can be really frightening to go through that with little to no information.'
But green shoots are emerging in the area of follow-up care.
In April, University College Cork's pregnancy loss research group made a series of resources available to women who experience miscarriages or recurrent miscarriages.
These include booklets with accessible and comprehensive information, answering questions such as what happens next, what supports are available — as well as details of other women's lived experiences.
All the resources are also on pregnancy loss website:
The group has also developed healthcare providers information so they can give more sensitive and consistent support to women, including a checklist emergency department staff can use when people initially present with miscarriage signs.
'It is excellent to have this new dedicated website for pregnancy loss, where women can go and know the information is fact-based,' says Duggan, who is also a member of the Re:current research advisory group, which the Health Research Board funds to evaluate recurrent miscarriage services in Ireland.
Cork University Maternity Hospital consultant obstetrician professor Keelin O'Donoghue — who spearheads the pregnancy loss research group — has called on decision makers to implement a new model of care for people who experience miscarriages.
The group is proposing people experiencing their first miscarriage get infor-mation, be told about peer support groups, screened for risk factors, and referred to other services as needed: 'Implementing our proposed model of care would help to ensure that people receive an agreed standard of care, regardless of where they live or are looked after and regardless of their financial means, which would be tailored to their individual needs.'
For decades, women and couples who experience miscarriages in Ireland have been left to fend for themselves, with little to no support. Though the situation on the ground remains difficult for many of the 14,000 women who experience a miscarriage each year, there are seeds of change, which signal hope for organisations like the Miscarriage Association of Ireland.
'Change might be a little bit slower than we'd like, but it's important that things are done right from the start,' says Duggan. 'If that happens, there's a chance that the changes will succeed, become embedded, and that is vital.'
Click here to read our National Women's Health Survey
The Irish Examiner Women's Health Survey 2025
Ipsos B&A designed and implemented a research project for the Irish Examiner involving a nationally representative sample of n=1,078 women over the age of 16 years.
The study was undertaken online with fieldwork conducted between April 30 and May 15, 2025.
The sample was quota controlled by age, socio-economic class, region and area of residence to reflect the known profile of women in Ireland based on the census of population and industry agreed guidelines.
Ipsos B&A has strict quality control measures in place to ensure robust and reliable findings; results based on the full sample carry a margin of error of +/-2.8%.
In other words, if the research was repeated identically results would be expected to lie within this range on 19 occasions out of 20.
A variety of aspects were assessed in relation to women's health including fertility, birth, menopause, mental health, health behaviour, and alcohol consumption.
