by Cassandra Harvey

Created on: December 31, 2009

Discovering that you are going to be a mother is a special time.  However, for some it can be an experience marred by a prior loss. 

One of the biggest questions in the abortion debate is from what point the foetus is classified as a life.  For some, life is developed over a process with cells maturing.  For others, it is instantaneous wonder as a new life is created.  Regardless of the intricate technicalities that separates the pro-life argument from the pro-choice and the definition of existence and life; that cluster of cells, upon discovery, becomes someone's child.  Many women, once they discover they are on the train-tracks to motherhood, will struggle to recover from a derailing.   Whether it is at the beginning or towards the end of the journey that the loss occurs, no woman forgets the precious moments of neither the journey they began nor the distress they felt as they learnt of their loss.

Statistical records show that miscarriage has a high rate occurrence, particularly within the first trimester.  Records also show that the majority of women go on to have normal low risk pregnancies, which bear healthy babies.  Scientifically, it may be quite normal.  Emotionally, with the discovery of a new life, begins the formation of dreams and hopes that all parents have for their children.  The saying... 'No parent should have to bury their child," is just as valid in the event of miscarriage emotionally, as it is for those who are blessed with the opportunity to hold their child and to know them before losing them.

It was September 2005, when a routine scan showed an empty sac in my uterus where my baby had once been.  There had been no bleeding, no signs of anything being remotely wrong.  Then suddenly, the floor was ripped out from beneath my partner and I.  In the days that followed, the bleeding began, as did the trips back and forth to the hospital as we watched for signs of hemorrhage and infection.  The physical aspect of the turmoil ended with the dilation and curettage procedure.  The memory of walking into the sterile operating theatre, knowing that when I awoke all traces of my child would be gone still brings me to tears.  It was three years before I could talk about my lost child without falling into an empty pit of grief.

Fast forward to September 2009 and two bright pink lines on a plastic stick, there was no time to cry tears

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