Content note: this article contains descriptions of pregnancy and baby loss.

On Wednesday 12 March, after 10 months of tireless campaigning, Stylist fulfilled a powerful promise: to take the voices of women who have experienced pregnancy loss right to the heart of government. In a landmark moment for our Every Loss Counts campaign, we met with Wes Streeting, the secretary of state for health and social care, to present the realities of miscarriage and highlight the urgent need for change.

Launched in summer 2024 in partnership with Tommy’s, the UK’s leading charity funding research to make pregnancy and birth safe, Every Loss Counts set out to break the silence around miscarriage and challenge a healthcare system that too often leaves women unsupported and unseen.

This meeting marked the culmination of that mission – a turning point made possible by the strength and honesty of more than 90 women who shared their stories of miscarriage and baby loss with us, which were then turned into a report and presented to Streeting. 

At an intimate morning event, we brought together an audience of women who’d contributed their stories to our report, alongside pregnancy loss activists, experts from Tommy’s and Stylist editors. Three women shared their stories directly with the health secretary: Myleene Klass, broadcaster, Tommy’s ambassador and presenter of Bafta-winning documentary Miscarriage And Me; journalist Jennie Agg and Stylist’s own Strong Women editor, Miranda Larbi.

Each woman spoke with raw honesty about their lived experience, highlighting not only the physical toll of miscarriage but also the emotional trauma that is so often overlooked. They also outlined, with clarity and urgency, what must change to ensure no woman feels abandoned in the aftermath of pregnancy loss.

“I was told by a doctor I’d need to have three consecutive miscarriages to get help,” Klass told Streeting. “Nowhere else in healthcare would you wait for three consecutive events. You wouldn’t wait for three consecutive heart attacks – you wouldn’t even wait for three nosebleeds.”

It was a moment of truth that resonated deeply. For too long, the pain of miscarriage has been sidelined or minimised, yet studies show that 41% of women self-report clinically significant levels of anxiety and 36% report depression within one month of losing a pregnancy – numbers that underscore just how critical this issue is.

“Nothing could prepare me for the emotional tragedy of pregnancy loss,” Larbi told Streeting. “I think that is one thing that is unacknowledged by the NHS – this is a life-changing experience, we are talking about losing the possibility of starting a family and a new life.”

The health secretary listened – and responded. “One of the things I’m struck by as a man is that there are lots of things that are either a universal experience for women, or very common experiences for women, that are still treated like exceptional or rare events,” he said.

Streeting stressed that more must be done to change the healthcare system to best accommodate women, saying: “We have a national health service that was largely designed by men, and I’m afraid still reflects an NHS in a man’s world rather than NHS that is genuinely a universal service. And I definitely have a responsibility to help fix that.”

At the end of the event, Stylist presented Streeting with the report – the UK’s biggest ever investigation into miscarriage and pregnancy loss. With more than 90 stories, it issues four recommendations for how care around miscarriage must be transformed, including:

1. Implementing empathy training for staff who have direct contact with newly bereaved parents.
2. Officially recording miscarriage and pregnancy loss.
3. Creating separate spaces for those on the miscarriage pathway within Early Pregnancy Units.
4. Providing all women and bereaved parents with an aftercare plan.

We’re hoping to meet with Streeting again in six months’ time to see what progress has been made while also supporting Tommy’s in its campaign for a graded model of care for miscarriage and baby loss. That would see a tiered system based on the number of previous miscarriages being rolled out across the country. After your first loss, you’d be screened for mental health support and guidance on reducing the risk of future losses; by the third, you’d receive care in a medical, consultant-led clinic. Having that system in place would go a long way to putting a stop to the isolation and fear felt by many women and families who currently face miscarriage and recovery alone. 

Our morning with Wes Streeting was more than a meeting. It was a milestone – proof that when women speak out, change becomes not only possible but inevitable. The campaign may have started with heartbreak, but it ends with hope.

Images: Sarah Brick