Course structure

This course will provide you with the knowledge and understanding you need to communicate sensitively and effectively around pregnancy loss, and to minimise the harm that language can sometimes cause to those who experience it.

The use of language around pregnancy loss has a long historical background of calls for change. Today, this issue is incredibly complex, varying with the different kinds and contexts of loss and the different stages of pregnancy at which people experience loss. Further, it is an issue that spans all languages and cultures. Clearly one two-week course cannot possibly cover all of this!

Out of practical necessity, we focus here on uses of English language in a UK healthcare context, and have chosen what we think are the most important and useful insights that have been obtained to date in this context.

Over the next two weeks, we will cover the following topics:

1. The impact of language

We will outline the context of historical and present day calls for language reform in relation to pregnancy loss. We will also introduce key themes arising from focus groups among people who have experienced care for pregnancy loss in the UK, or who have been involved in delivering it. You will explore the significance communicative choices can have for perceptions of implied blame, stigma, invalidation and dehumanisation.

2. Acceptable/Unacceptable language

We will look more closely at survey data on the perceived acceptability of a range of common words and phrases used to describe pregnancy loss. You will learn key findings arising from this quantitative data and the questions and challenges for healthcare practitioners, particularly where language evokes mixed responses.

3. Communication strategies

We will cover practical methods that clinicians and others involved in pregnancy loss care might use to adapt their communication, including: reflective listening, eliciting individual preferences and framing jargon. You will reflect upon the applications and potential benefits of these methods for your own practice, and discuss them with other learners.

4. Recommendations for terminology

We will end the course with a set of recommendations for language use across other contexts in which pregnancy loss is discussed such as policy and public information documents. We will identify language choices most likely to cause distress for those who experience pregnancy loss, and recommend alternatives which minimise harm.

How to get the best out of the course

The course is designed so that you can work through it at your own pace. Each week is divided into three activities, each comprised of 3/4 steps. We expect that each of the activities could be completed in under an hour meaning that each week should require roughly 2-2.5 hours of study in total.

The topics that we are going to work through in the activities build on each other so it is important to do the steps in order, but you can divide these up according to the time that you have. There will also be additional opportunities to do further reading, if wished.

We will be drawing on terminology which is relatively common in UK healthcare (e.g. Ectopic Pregnancy, Termination for Medical Reasons). We expect that many of the learners on this course will be healthcare professionals, or working in some capacity with people who have experienced pregnancy loss. However, this may not always be the case and we welcome learners from other backgrounds! If you do not have a working knowledge of this terminology and need a resource to refer to, we recommend the following websites which give clear definitions for common medical terms:

Sands.org.uk: Types of baby loss.

Tommys.org: Terms around stillbirth and miscarriage.

Share your experiences!

Healthcare practitioners provide a vital perspective on the role and impact of language in communicating around pregnancy loss. Throughout the course we will be inviting you to reflect upon and discuss the things you hear and read, and compare how these relate to your own experiences. Most of us have some experience of communicating about pregnancy loss in some context – whether professional or not – and we encourage you to share this with each other as we go along. As you do so, please be mindful and supportive of other learners’ experiences.

With this in mind, it is possible that some of the experiences discussed during the course may be upsetting for some learners. If you find yourself in need of additional support during or after taking the course, you may find it helpful to reach out to one of the following charities: Miscarriage Association, Petals, Sands, Tommy’s.

Below are some more ways you can get the most out of the course.

Contribute to the discussion

Lots of the tasks on the course ask you to add your comments to the discussion at the bottom of the page. You are encouraged to support other learners, share your own knowledge, and listen to new perspectives. Answer each other’s questions where you can. We hope that you will enjoy interacting with and learning from each other in this way.

(Note: this course runs on an ongoing ‘on demand’ basis, so outside of specific periods, we are unlikely to be able to join the discussion ourselves. If you have any questions about the course, please feel free to get in touch with us directly using the links below).

Engage with us on social media

If you’re an Instagram or X user, we’ll be using the hashtag #FLPregnancyLoss. Feel free to post any questions or comments about the course and to respond to your fellow learners. You can also follow us:

Beth Malory @drbethmalory

Louise Nuttall @LouiseNuttall

English Usage Research at UCL @UCLEnglishUsage

Any questions?

If you could ask an educator on this course a question, what question would you ask them? Maybe you can answer someone else’s question below.