Mar 12, 2023Liked by Scottish Unity Edinburgh Group
Definitely intriguing how the first dramatic rise starts almost before the lockdown period in 2020. Perhaps there was a protocol in place prior to lockdown whereby the hospitals had started encouraging terminations. Alternatively, this may correlate with winter flu injections which I guess pregnant women are encouraged to take. Nevertheless this is a significant warning signal that has been ignored. In a caring system this should trigger a reasonable health system to step up their monitoring and report accordingly. But clearly they have failed in their duty as they have not reported, commented or acted on this matter.
Mar 12, 2023Liked by Scottish Unity Edinburgh Group
I wondered about lack of or perceived lack of access to contraception in early 2020 accounting for more unwanted pregnancies, but that doesn't explain the later rise.
It is easier now to arrange a termination of pregnancy, through the Early Medical Abortion at Home legislation https://www.gov.scot/news/early-medical-abortion-at-home-1/ and as more people become aware of this option it might lead to a rise in requests, as self-referral now. Hopefully not being used as an alternative to contraception. Presumably someone somewhere will be analysing the reasons for this rise. I think economic uncertainty will be playing a part.
Mar 12, 2023Liked by Scottish Unity Edinburgh Group
Women in the Pfizer trials were told not to get pregnant although some did and the outcomes were not good. It entered my head that women who were recently vaccinated and then became pregnant may be concerned that the vaccination may have a negative affect on their pregnancy but I doubt this is a likely explanation. List young people I know who took it - often quite eagerly - seemed to hold no reservations about it at all.
Mar 12, 2023·edited Mar 12, 2023Liked by Scottish Unity Edinburgh Group
I'd guess this is mostly driven by relationship stress and material insecurity in the category of professional women in their later 20's to later 30's: a group of women who will not proceed with a pregnancy unless they have a stable and secure relationship and a steady job.
Lots of evidence of mental health issues in the lockdown, with other stress indicators sky high.
Mar 12, 2023Liked by Scottish Unity Edinburgh Group
So, this one is a head scratcher! Immediately, I was heading to the 'shots = problematic pregnancy = termination' but then the early terminations (pre any clinical diagnosis) seem to rule this out. Could the shots be interfering with contraceptives? Are more women falling pregnant unexpectedly, giving rise to an increase in early termination? That's my 'thinking out loud' thought, for what it's worth!
Mar 31, 2023Liked by Scottish Unity Edinburgh Group
Thanks for the mention. A very interesting observation. Agreed it makes no sense that over 30's women would be the group that would be driving the excess terminations nor the most affluent. And there is something a bit odd about the weeks too... The orange bars are smaller than the equivalent bars before covid. I can't explain why this should be but it raises concerns about data integrity.
Apr 1, 2023Liked by Scottish Unity Edinburgh Group
Do you think that first spike could have been caused by some indirect feature of lockdowns, such as people in the service industries being out of work? I'd love to see a breakdown by income on that.
Definitely intriguing how the first dramatic rise starts almost before the lockdown period in 2020. Perhaps there was a protocol in place prior to lockdown whereby the hospitals had started encouraging terminations. Alternatively, this may correlate with winter flu injections which I guess pregnant women are encouraged to take. Nevertheless this is a significant warning signal that has been ignored. In a caring system this should trigger a reasonable health system to step up their monitoring and report accordingly. But clearly they have failed in their duty as they have not reported, commented or acted on this matter.
I wondered about lack of or perceived lack of access to contraception in early 2020 accounting for more unwanted pregnancies, but that doesn't explain the later rise.
It is easier now to arrange a termination of pregnancy, through the Early Medical Abortion at Home legislation https://www.gov.scot/news/early-medical-abortion-at-home-1/ and as more people become aware of this option it might lead to a rise in requests, as self-referral now. Hopefully not being used as an alternative to contraception. Presumably someone somewhere will be analysing the reasons for this rise. I think economic uncertainty will be playing a part.
Women in the Pfizer trials were told not to get pregnant although some did and the outcomes were not good. It entered my head that women who were recently vaccinated and then became pregnant may be concerned that the vaccination may have a negative affect on their pregnancy but I doubt this is a likely explanation. List young people I know who took it - often quite eagerly - seemed to hold no reservations about it at all.
I'd guess this is mostly driven by relationship stress and material insecurity in the category of professional women in their later 20's to later 30's: a group of women who will not proceed with a pregnancy unless they have a stable and secure relationship and a steady job.
Lots of evidence of mental health issues in the lockdown, with other stress indicators sky high.
But its just a guess.
So, this one is a head scratcher! Immediately, I was heading to the 'shots = problematic pregnancy = termination' but then the early terminations (pre any clinical diagnosis) seem to rule this out. Could the shots be interfering with contraceptives? Are more women falling pregnant unexpectedly, giving rise to an increase in early termination? That's my 'thinking out loud' thought, for what it's worth!
Thanks for the mention. A very interesting observation. Agreed it makes no sense that over 30's women would be the group that would be driving the excess terminations nor the most affluent. And there is something a bit odd about the weeks too... The orange bars are smaller than the equivalent bars before covid. I can't explain why this should be but it raises concerns about data integrity.
It's a bit odd isn't it?
Do you think that first spike could have been caused by some indirect feature of lockdowns, such as people in the service industries being out of work? I'd love to see a breakdown by income on that.