Pregnancy loss terms used by health staff 'cause fresh grief'

'Hearing words that are clinical, cold or cruel can leave women devastated'

- Denis Campbell

Women who have lost a baby during pregnancy often suffer further grief and trauma when health staff use words such as "miscarriage", "foetus" and "fetal death", research has found.

More than six in 10 (61%) women who had lost a baby between 18 and 23 weeks of pregnancy said it was unacceptable for doctors, midwives and nurses to use the word "miscarriage".

Only 22% thought that was an acceptable way to refer to the loss they had suffered, even though that is the medical and legal definition in the UK of a baby who dies before reaching 24 weeks gestation. Large majorities also disapprove of "intrapartum fetal death" and "intrauterine death".

Four out of five (82%) women would prefer staff to use "pregnancy loss", according to the research, which was led by Dr Beth Malory, a lecturer in English linguistics at University College London.