Miscarriages: Famous women talk about it

Last Sunday, ORF presenter Lou Lorenz-Dittlbacher, 47, told the Ö3 “Breakfast with me” that she had suffered a miscarriage and described this loss as her worst life crisis. In doing so, she made a fact public about which many affected women remain silent for their entire lives.

“A miscarriage is an experience that unfortunately a lot of women have,” says Michaela Kaiser, vice-chairwoman of the Zoe association (www.zoe.at) in Linz, which has been advising women on all aspects of pregnancy for almost two decades and busy giving birth. Statistics say that at least one in five pregnancies ends in a miscarriage. A miscarriage up to the 12th week of pregnancy is considered an early abortion, from the 20th week a late abortion.

But although many women are affected, miscarriages are one of the topics that are still taboo. “Many of those affected initially look to themselves to blame and ask themselves: Did I do something wrong?”, Says Michaela Kaiser.

For some, the grief would run deep and it would take them months to get over it, others would come to terms with the loss more quickly. “It is important that women who are in public speak openly about the subject of miscarriages in order to finally break the taboo behind it.”

“Sadness and shame”

In the past few months, the model Chrissy Teigen and the wife of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, reported about her miscarriages. “I tell this publicly because I felt a mixture of sadness and shame at the time. Other women then told me that the same thing happened to them and they now have healthy children. That helped me a lot,” said ORF presenter Lou Lorenz-Dittlbacher. Some time later, the 47-year-old sought medical advice and then became pregnant, daughter Emma is now eleven years old.

When a miscarriage occurs, it can have a number of causes. The most common is a genetic change in the fetus that is incompatible with life. Michaela Kaiser also mentions hormonal disorders, cervical weaknesses and infections.