Myleene Klass explains how we could prevent thousands of miscarriages a year

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]A new report from the pregnancy and baby charity Tommy's suggests that offering women tests, further tests after they have experienced their first miscarriage could prevent the loss of more than 10,000 babies every year.

[00:00:14]>> Currently in England and Wales, women generally have to wait until they experience three miscarriages before possible causes are examined.

[00:00:22]>> Well, women's health campaigner Mileen Class has herself experienced four miscarriages and joins us now. Mining, thank you very much indeed. You know how painful this is emotionally, physically, how devastating miscarriage is. I didn't realize that there were interventions that could be made after the very first which might prevent the second and third.

[00:00:44]>> I think there's so many women that don't um realize it and very sadly we've learned our role so well when it comes to women's health and fertility in general um that we we assume it's just one of those things. Now, it turns out that the research that landed today from Tommy's with their graded model of miscarriage care proves that we could definitively save 10,000 babies every single year and graded care. Well, it's important that we need graded a graded model of care because at the moment, uh the way that it's structured, no one necessarily knows where to go when you have a miscarriage. Do you go to A&E? Do you end up in triage? Are you sitting next to someone who's having a heart attack or having a nose bleed? Where do you sit within that? If you still have a heartbeat, are you eligible for progesterone? Then you have med medical practitioners who don't know if they can um administer progesterone. There's a a real sort of mix and a mallay of what's going on at the moment. And that confusion is delaying women and their children getting the help they need. And for so long, the government has been kicking the tin can down the road when it comes to women's health care. I mean, just to give you an idea of what the imbalance looks like, we're on our sixth generation of Viagra when it comes to male fertility and women, we still don't have anything. We have no data collected. And this report is it's staggering, isn't it? It's staggering.

[00:02:07]>> What a comparison.

[00:02:08]>> Well, there you go. The sixth generation and women are just given a paracetamol and told, you know, go and sleep it off or it's just one of those things. Today, this report proves we can genuinely save these women and these babies. And when the government have said that they don't know how much it will cost, what the economics look like or how to help them from a medical standpoint, this report is all-encompassing and we've proved that we will be able to save money and save lives. You can't argue that.

[00:02:36]>> No.

[00:02:37]>> Can I um just put to you a couple of cases from our viewers which they're quite different, but I think you you can help us with both of them. Beth via Facebook. I had two early miscarriages.

[00:02:47]The doctor told me I couldn't get help until I had three. I went to a private doctor, was told I had polycystic um ovarian syndrome. When I next got pregnant, I was given medication to help stabilize my hormones. Went on to have two beautiful children. Uh then Sophie via Facebook, I've had six miscarriages, but won't be taken seriously because we already have a child before all of these miscarriages. So, I've just been ignored and made to feel like it's normal. So, in the one case, two miscarriages, you don't get the help. In the other case, because you've had a child, they don't listen. Are those common experiences that you're finding in the work you're doing?

[00:03:21]>> We've spoken to thousands of women who have been very brave in putting together this report. And as I said, you know, we we've got to the point now where the government have been kicking this tin can down the road. They ignored um women's uh requests and help the promise of helping with the uh women's health strategy and they further ignored it with the pregnancy loss review. How many times even with the refresh of the women's health strategy I was supposed to have a meeting with wares on Monday um that got cancelled by his department after we're treating after he offered the meeting um so to what end do these women have to continue suffering I had four consecutive miscarriages and none of the tricomemes that um came up for my miscarriages were related so I could have gone on to have 10 and it still wouldn't have helped to have waited and this is definitely the experience of so many women >> was the fact you'd had two children already. Do you think that meant >> it was almost used against me because you can get pregnant and so had my partner. But that's irrespective now we're realizing with this report, it doesn't necessarily impact or influence the the reasons that you can't or can get pregnant. Each pregnant each pregnancy should be treated as its own entity. Currently, as things stand, we say that there's a postcode lottery which we pay the price for when it comes to women's health. Well, we're now actually play paying a a country lottery because Northern Ireland and Scotland are way ahead of us at the moment. So, Scotland have implemented their own graded model of care, which is incredible for the the families in Scotland. Northern Ireland are now offering paid bereavement leave to their employers. And England and Wales, we are still waiting. We're still waiting for a rubber stamp that has been offered up to our government. We've given them the answers. We've given We've done their homework. There are no more excuses. Now the um all these miscarriages currently cost the UK471 million pounds a year.

[00:05:14]>> What we've offered is a solution that will cost them 15 million. Right now you speak from not just personal experience but yesterday you were at a hospital trust where they are already doing this in England. So there is a model there that you want West Streeting to adopt.

[00:05:33]So that's Birmingham.

[00:05:34]>> Well, that's where all of this research came out from.

[00:05:37]>> So if you have a if you live locally to that is it particular hospital uh or the hospital trust and you have your first miscarriage, what would be your experience when you go in there? What would you do? What's the difference?

[00:05:51]They would test you immediately. They wouldn't say take a paracetamol or have a lie down or these things happened or it's one of these things or it's God's will or it happened to my grandmother.

[00:05:59]You wouldn't get the usual platitudes that are levied in your direction. It that you can do something now.

[00:06:05]>> The test is what is >> well it there for different people. They might have anemia. They might have um polycystic ovaries. There might be actually dare I dare I offer it. It might be the the man that might need to be tested.

[00:06:19]>> But that would kick in after the very first experience of miscarriage. And currently it is the protocol that it only happens after the third.

[00:06:27]>> It's the protocol. Well, it's an understanding that people have accepted because actually until recently um two years ago, we decided that actually we shouldn't be waiting for three years.

[00:06:36]And this is what I'm saying about there's no graded model of care. There's no definitive line that people can follow. In America, it's two miscarriages that you wait for consecutively. So we need one definitive line that everyone can open the book and say right the medical profession agree and the patients agree that if we follow this graded model of care we're going to be able to save the the pain of 250,000 women every year and 100% we'll be able to save 10,000 babies a year. We had West Streeting in the studio a couple of weeks ago.

[00:07:05]>> Had to get a meeting for him to show up, wasn't he?

[00:07:07]>> He was in a couple of times in the last month and he sat exactly where you were and when we asked about the NHS, he says the biggest worry he has is that maternity services aren't good enough and we need to sort this out. But >> well then prove it. He's right. Prove it. We've done your homework for you.

[00:07:22]We've given you a solution. What more do you possibly want? You asked for proof that you could get live births um while we were midway through this report. So, initially we looked at miscarriage, but we've now shown with our incredibly brave women and their case studies that we can deliver live births. We've shown the economics. We've shown what happens from the perspective of the most incredible medical practitioners around the world. We've done your homework for you, Minister. Over to you.

[00:07:49]>> And do you think I mean it could be a problem of leadership?

[00:07:53]>> We know that that's definitive.

[00:07:55]>> It could be. It could be a problem of money. Could be a problem of doctors.

[00:07:58]Sometimes in maternity care you have brilliant midwives and then you have other midwives who are kind of who've grown up in a culture where you do say to moms this is what happens. Where do you think the fault really lies >> from the leadership from the our wombs are owned by by Westminster. So these decisions are made in Westminster. We've given the report the medical profession do agree that these faults have been discovered. It's about money leadership.

[00:08:23]>> Well we've really solved the money issue. We realize that we're bleeding out and we we can help you with the economics.

[00:08:29]>> You sat there and said it's his biggest worry. Why would he not just do it?

[00:08:32]>> Well, my question exactly >> and you are meeting him eventually the 1st of June at 3:00 >> and he's looking forward to it.

[00:08:39]>> Is he?

[00:08:40]>> Yeah, we've been told he is.

[00:08:41]>> But I don't need the meeting. I'm I stand with these quarter of a million.

[00:08:45]Sorry.

[00:08:47]>> Why do you think he's not listening?

[00:08:49]Well, that's a really good question because if you want to be the future leader or if you are as you are the health secretary, then you should be doing your job and looking after the quarter of a million women who are losing babies. I think politically it doesn't matter what your stand is. I think we can all agree that dead babies, it is not acceptable and suffering women is not acceptable. So, if you can take us to the sixth generation of Viagra, but women are still being sent home with a paracetimal. As our health secretary, you owe these women more than that. So his department said that they welcome the study and the findings will be carefully considered saying that research like this is crucial. They also point out that their renewed women's health strategy plus uh puts women's voices and experiences at the heart of care. We'll talk to you again after that meeting as long as it goes ahead on the 1 of June.

[00:09:40]>> Thank you very much.

[00:09:41]>> And we'll also talk to Wes Streeting about that as well. Milen, thank you so much. really appreciate it if you >> if you've been affected by any of the issues we've been talking about this morning, there is help and support at itv.com/helines.

[00:09:52]>> Thank you so much.

[00:09:53]>> Thank you.

[00:09:53]>> Yeah, it's good because I know in a lot of these issues it's just really hard to have to rake over your own experience, but it is obviously in order to >> but you can pain into power and I can't look at my own children and think I was in a position where I could do something about this and I didn't. And you're talking about meetings as so many politicians do. We don't need any more meetings.

[00:10:16]>> You need action.

[00:10:16]>> We need action.

[00:10:17]>> But you do need a meeting.

[00:10:18]>> Well said.

[00:10:19]>> No, I need action. I rubber stamp the report and we don't need the meeting.

[00:10:22]>> There we go.

[00:10:23]>> We'll have a party.

[00:10:25]>> Yeah. Once it's all >> cancel the meeting. do what to uh get it done