School of Life & Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK.
Hum Reprod. 2010 Mar;25(3):721-7. doi: 10.1093/humrep/dep441. Epub 2009 Dec 19.
Although pregnancy loss is a distressing health event for many women, research typically equates women's experiences of pregnancy loss to 'married heterosexual women's experiences of pregnancy loss'. The objective of this study was to explore lesbian and bisexual women's experiences of miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death.
This study analysed predominantly qualitative online survey data from 60 non-heterosexual, mostly lesbian, women from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. All but one of the pregnancies was planned. Most respondents had physically experienced one early miscarriage during their first pregnancy, although a third had experienced multiple losses.
The analysis highlights three themes: processes and practices for conception; amplification of loss; and health care and heterosexism. Of the respondents, 84% conceived using donor sperm; most used various resources to plan conception and engaged in preconception health care. The experience of loss was amplified due to contextual factors and the investment respondents reported making in impending motherhood. Most felt that their loss(es) had made a 'significant'/'very significant' impact on their lives. Many respondents experienced health care during their loss. Although the majority rated the overall standard of care as 'good'/'very good'/'outstanding', a minority reported experiencing heterosexism from health professionals.
The implications for policy and practice are outlined. The main limitation was that the inflexibility of the methodology did not allow the specificities of women's experiences to be probed further. It is suggested that both coupled and single non-heterosexual women should be made more visible in reproductive health and pregnancy loss research.
尽管妊娠丢失对许多女性来说是一个令人痛苦的健康事件，但研究通常将女性的妊娠丢失经历等同于“已婚异性恋女性的妊娠丢失经历”。本研究旨在探讨女同性恋和双性恋女性的流产、死胎和新生儿死亡经历。
本研究分析了来自英国、美国、加拿大和澳大利亚的 60 名非异性恋、主要是女同性恋的女性的主要是定性的在线调查数据。除了一人之外，所有的怀孕都是有计划的。大多数受访者在第一次怀孕时经历过一次早期流产，尽管三分之一的人经历过多次流产。
分析突出了三个主题：受孕的过程和实践；损失的放大；以及医疗保健和异性恋偏见。在受访者中，84%的人使用了捐赠的精子受孕；大多数人使用了各种资源来计划受孕并进行了孕前保健。由于背景因素和受访者报告的即将成为母亲的投入，损失的经历被放大了。大多数人认为他们的损失对他们的生活产生了“重大”/“非常重大”的影响。许多受访者在失去孩子的过程中接受了医疗保健。尽管大多数人将整体护理标准评为“良好”/“非常好”/“优秀”，但少数人报告称他们曾遭受过医疗保健专业人员的异性恋偏见。
为政策和实践提出了相关建议。主要限制是方法的灵活性不允许进一步探究女性经历的特殊性。建议在生殖健康和妊娠丢失研究中，应更多地关注已婚和单身的非异性恋女性。
