'I was so focused on having a baby, I didn't dare stop to grieve'

More than one in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage, but most women don't talk about it. We think the time has come to break down the walls of silence, and start to open up

It's time to end the culture of silence around miscarriage.

This week two high-profile Irish women spoke of their miscarriages on the same day as they announced their pregnancies. Two women, one an entrepreneur, the other a broadcaster,  reached into the hearts of families all over the country and touched a nerve. 

At a time when we begin most conversations with a silent scan of the other person's overall health, checking them for signs of a virus we cannot touch, we find ourselves too afraid to speak of the deep grief of losing a baby. Because we don't know how to. 

In sharing their stories of loss, Pippa O'Connor and Síle Seoige have started conversations and exchanges about our experience of miscarriage that we would not have had last week. 

On our Irish Examiner social media channels, women share their stories of miscarriage both recent and in the past, supporting each other without ever having met. 

We think it's time to end the culture of silence around miscarriage, will you help us?