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Interview 13

Interview 13

Age at Interview: 34
Sex: Female
Background: Pregnancy ended in 2003. No of children: [1] at time of interview, twins born since interview. Occupations: Mother - programme manager, Father - senior change manager. Marital status: married. Ethnic background: White British.

Brief outline:Her 1st pregnancy: heavy bleeding in first trimester caused by ovarian haematoma. 20-week scan found insufficient amniotic fluid - possible premature rupture of membranes. Parents advised that baby could have lung damage/ breathing difficulties - uncertain prognosis. Pregnancy ended by induction at 23 weeks. Post mortem indicated that baby's development not affected by rupture of membranes. Twins born since termination.

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Describes feeling angry to be asked why she hadn't attended an antenatal appointment after having let her local surgery know about the termination.
Print I hooked into the support service at the hospital, I was very focused on the hospital, tremendously focused on the hospital - for me it was terribly important. I think that's because that's the only place that [baby] had ever been. And, and so I was focused on that, and the GP I wasn't interested in, because they didn't really help me throughout the pregnancy, or done terribly much to, you know, make me feel overly confident. The midwives, I received a letter after terminating, was it after we'd terminated... after we'd terminated the pregnancy, I was due to have an ante-natal check-up with the community midwives at the surgery. Of course there was no point in me attending because I was no longer pregnant, so I phoned them to notify them. And I think it was about half an hour before the appointment because I suddenly remembered, and I then got a letter two days later saying, “Why didn't you turn up for your appointment?” So I was so, you know, incensed by it, well my husband was, [that] we wrote to them.

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