Playtimes HK Magazine Winter Issue 2018/2019 | Page 41

maternity
Stillbirth and
Miscarriage
in Hong Kong
“Even the smallest of feet have the power to leave
everlasting footprints upon this world”
E
very month or so a group of
parents meet for coffee on
the fourth floor of Central
Health Medical Practice in
Duddell Street. They talk through their
experiences, their feelings, their lives,
and about their babies. Sadly, however,
those babies no longer have a place in
this world. These parents have all suffered
the loss of a child through miscarriage,
stillbirth or neonatal death and come
together to offer each other support.
Dr Lucy Lord started the precursor
of this English-speaking support
group 25 years ago. Lucy is a veteran
obstetrician known for her straight
talking and support for vaginal delivery.
In a city where the Caesarean section
rate in private practice is close to 70
per cent, one of the highest section
rates in the world, she has managed to
stay true to her roots in the NHS.
Lucy is clear it is the responsibility
of the obstetrician to fully support their
patients through the good times and
the bad. It is undoubtedly of greater
difficulty but greater value to support
them through tragedy. Whilst it is
the hope of every obstetrician not to
lose a single baby, in reality we know
miscarriages are common and more
tragically about one in one-hundred
babies die between 24 weeks and
one year of age. As Lucy explains, not
to make proper provision to support
the patients who need it the most is
unacceptable.
In the early years of the support
group Lucy and her midwives did most
of the counselling; patients were mainly
referred through word of mouth and
the service was provided pro bono.
The group grew in numbers and about
seven years ago Suzanne Meenan, a
psychologist at Central Health, took
over supporting a much larger group,
which, by that stage, also consisted
of some English speaking Hong Kong
Chinese bereaved parents.
When Suzanne Meenan returned
to Ireland six months ago, Lucy once
again started meeting with the group
to determine what kind of professional
support was needed going forward. It
was at this time that Lucy met Teresa
Lee, Sharon Ma and Henry Siu, three
Hong Kong Chinese parents who had
each suffered the loss of a baby.
Lucy was surprised to hear how
they, and many other patients at local
hospitals, were treated at such a
devastating time and how little support
and information was available to the
grieving parents.
Sharon Ma and Teresa Lee
both experienced stillbirth due to
preeclampsia in 2016 and 2017. They
consider themselves lucky to have
found the support group at Central
Health as no such group existed for the
non-English speaking community.
Because of this lack of help, Sharon
and Teresa (who both speak English
and Cantonese) started two support
groups for Cantonese-speaking
mothers. They have been amazed by
the amount of people wanting to join
the groups, which are called “Stillbirth
媽 媽一起走 ”(Stillbirth Mothers Walk
Together) and “小產媽媽一起走”
(Miscarried Mothers Walk Together).
Winter 2018
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