[lettie]

Awwww... I'm so sorry Mummiboo. It must be a hard time for you right now, and so brave of you to answer this thread. My thoughts are with you.

I personally wouldn't use termination of pregnancy as a form of contraception but there is a place for it in cases of rape and foetal abnormalities which are incompatible with life (the medical term for disabilities so severe that the baby would be stillborn or die shortly after birth). There is also a place for termination with foetal abnormality which would severely compromise a family's quality of life. The decision to terminate is often a very difficult one, bear in mind that most women bond with their babies almost as soon as they find themselves pregnant. In cases of foetal abnormality, it is often a huge shock and a gut wrenching decision.

I don't believe that it is on anyone's agenda to ever have a termination. If you ask a little girl what she wants to do when she grows up, she will never say 'have a termination'.......

The reason that medical staff use the term 'abortion' for what we know as a miscarriage is because that it is (and always has been) the correct medical term. Unfortunately the word abortion has been misused by lay people to mean the deliberate ending of a pregnancy and it has stuck. Therefore, when medical and nursing staff use the term 'missed abortion', women who have miscarried may find it upsetting. The staff are not being insensitive, they are using the correct medical term. A deliberate ending of a pregnancy is know as a termination... I hope this explains some of the terminology, as legally, the correct wording has to be used in medical records in order to avoid confusion.