PL President Opens Up About Miscarriage Seven Years Ago And Why IVF Reform Is So Important To Her
Labour president Ramona Attard delivered a powerful speech at her party’s general conference this evening as she recounted how she suffered a pregnancy miscarriage on this exact day seven years ago.
“On this day, 11th March, I usually prefer to be by myself,” Attard told a crowd of delegates at the Mediterranean Conference Centre.
“This time seven years ago, I should have been full of happiness and expectation for the birth of my baby, who would have been called Guzé. However, I had a miscarriage after I was 16 weeks pregnant.”
“I’m not the only one this happened to; 20% of all pregnancies turn out to be miscarriages and some are even late miscarriages. I know how this is a taboo subject and I don’t want it to remain so.”
Attard said that after the trauma of her miscarriage, she and her partner were immediately plunged into another trauma as medical experts carried out blood tests to determine whether the miscarriage was the result of some kind of genetic condition.
“My heart was fluttering for weeks until the result came out and proved my miscarriage was caused by a blood clot. I took a deep breath in and felt so relieved,” she said.
“However, afterwards I reflected on what would have happened if it turned out that I did have a genetic problem. I would have had three options – either not have children at all, risk having another miscarriage and getting broken all over again, or go overseas for IVF treatment, which is tough for couples paying off their home loan.”
“I promised myself that if I ever have the opportunity, I’ll work to make sure no one is denied the right to have children.”
The Labour Party is proposing the legalisation of IVF procedures that will allow couples to screen their embryos for potential genetic conditions prior to their implantation.
Attard said that this decision followed a consultation meeting she and Prime Minister Robert Abela carried out with couples with genetic problems.
“After this meeting, the Prime Minister told me not to go home but to stay here and discuss what we had just heard. Someone from our team was going off to watch football but the Prime Minister told him to forget the game and help out with this proposal because he wanted it to be in our electoral manifesto.”
“Some people told him to forget about it because it will be dangerous but the Prime Minister kept on going and committed to implementing this into law within the first 100 days of a new PL government.”
“If I had to come to Malta without knowing anything else, I would say Abela deserves a strong vote on this decision alone.”
Warning that one out of every six couples in Malta suffers from infertility problems, the PL president said that the PL’s proposal “gives a ray of hope to those who feel broken after pregnancy tests, those who feel part of them dying when they suffer one miscarriage after the other, and those who lose heart after IVF treatments fail.”
“Now I have my mind at rest that our children will have the same opportunities to become parents as everyone else in other countries. It’s the biggest heritage we can leave our children, the heritage of opportunities to succeed.”
Do you agree with the proposal to allow couples to screen their embryos for potential genetic conditions”
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