Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this private member's motion because it acknowledges the deep and profound impact of pregnancy loss. One in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage. I speak from personal experience when I say that it is devastating. In many respects, the sense of loss never leaves you. I'm conscious that this speech is going to be cut very short, so I'm going to try and wrap it up really quickly. I want to talk about pregnancy loss from the point of view of vulnerability because, when we have a pregnancy loss, we're in a state of vulnerability. I did a thesis on the dependency, the irreversibility and unpredictability we find ourselves in—a status that is very difficult to mitigate, to resolve or to come to terms with. My thesis actually speaks about adoption choice, which is a very similar subject with many of the same pieces of data. But I think, from a personal point of view, it is possible to put this sociological framework around pregnancy loss and to come up with solutions that are hopeful, that are interdependent and that can bring some resolution to the past.

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