Case study: ‘Painful subject no-one will discuss’

Published on 05/08/2012 00:00

LEE McKeddie has suffered two miscarriages and says the subject is “taboo” for many women to discuss.

The 34-year-old from Glasgow lost twins in June last year after falling pregnant three months earlier. She then discovered last December that she was in the early stages of a second pregnancy, but again lost her baby just two days after Christmas when she suffering heavy bleeding.

“It was two different types of miscarriages,” she said.

“I felt afterwards that no-one had explained to me there were possible things with your blood they could do. Later on I found out about Hughes syndrome.”

Hughes syndrome causes abnormal blood clotting and is believed to be the reason behind up to one in five recurrent miscarriages.

“No-one had raised that – they just said you’re still young, but I’m 34, so I’m not that young,” she said. “When I spoke to the early pregnancy team at the hospital, they didn’t ask anything about me.

“They just said you’re young and fobbed me off.”

Lee will marry her fiancé John later this year and the couple then plan to try again for a child. But she said: “I’ve always got it in the back of my mind that I’ve had two, so what’s to say that it won’t happen again.

“Nature can be a horrible thing when it wants to be, but I’m sure there are a lot of women like myself out there.

“It’s such a taboo subject, not a lot of people like talking about it. But I’ve been quite open with people and it’s amazing how many people have come out of the woodwork and said they’ve had the same experience.”

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