Jackie Danicki

I know so many women who have had miscarriages or stillbirths, but it is not the sort of thing one usually discusses in depth with those who have suffered such tragedies. Today’s Sunday Times details the agony of one woman who went through these things.

Antoine was so small at birth that doctors were unable to weigh him; that he survived despite being ten weeks premature, 41 years ago, is amazing to me. I lost a nephew and a cousin to stillbirth. One friend suffered six miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy before she carried a child to term. All of my friends’ mums seem to have had at least one miscarriage. I know more than a few relationships which have not survived the aftermath of the death of a baby. I’m somewhat terrified by what might await us when (inshallah) we start a family - one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage.

The Sunday Times also reports that, in Britain in 2006, many babies are being aborted in late pregnancy because they have club feet or webbed fingers. You don’t have to be against a woman’s right to choose abortion (I’m not) to be revolted by the stamp of approval given to taxpayer-financed regulation of heredity in this country.

Filed under: Children, Friends, Happiness, Law, Life, Numbers, Politics, Relationships, Survival, The State Is Not Your Friend