Novel project at Cork secondary school to increase awareness around pregnancy loss 

A novel project aimed at increasing knowledge and awareness of pregnancy loss amongst young people saw researchers in Cork work alongside students in a city secondary school.

SPRING – Supporting Pregnancy and Reproductive health Information for Teenagers – is a collaboration between the Pregnancy Loss Research Group (PLRG) at University College Cork and transition year students at St Angela’s College.

It was borne out of research showing that women, and men, often feel unprepared about the impacts of pregnancy loss.

“Pregnancy and infant loss, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or early neonatal death, occurs in 20-25% of all pregnancies, said Professor Keelin O’Donoghue from Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) and the PLRG.

“One in four pregnancies will end in early pregnancy miscarriage, and one in 250 babies in Ireland are stillborn.

“Despite this prevalence and associated physical and psychological impacts, there remains a lack of public awareness and understanding.”

Together with her colleagues, Dr Laura Linehan and Dr Brendan Fitzgerald, Prof O’Donoghue is leading national research towards a better understanding of the impacts of pregnancy loss.

They are developing resources and evidence-based advice and interventions to improve the quality of health care and social outcomes for women, babies, and their families.

This encompasses all types of pregnancy and infant loss, including first trimester miscarriage, second trimester miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy, multiple pregnancy complications, stillbirth and termination of pregnancy, as well as all neonatal death and pregnancy loss.

PLRG is co-located between the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at CUMH/ UCC and the INFANT research centre at UCC.

“In all our research at PLRG, what comes up time and time again is – why did I not know how common this is?” added Professor O’Donoghue.

“We are finding that women, and men too, almost always say that they are unprepared for the physical and emotional reality of pregnancy loss.

“This, along with some specific research led by Dr Linehan during her PHD, which focused on couples with recurrent miscarriage and infertility, really led us to considering school-based work.”

Along with her colleagues, consultant doctors Linehan and Fitzgerald, O’Donoghue worked with a transition year class at St Angela’s on Gardiner’s Hill in Cork city.

“Our main aim is to improve knowledge at secondary school age level of issues in relation to fertility difficulties and pregnancy loss, including miscarriage and stillbirth,” she said.

“This work done by PLRG in conjunction with the school resulted in the SPRING project, whose title was chosen by the students themselves – Supporting Pregnancy and Reproductive Health Information for Teenagers.”

A special event was held at St Angela’s recently to mark the end of the first year of the SPRING project.

Dr Laura Linehan, Consultant Obstetrician at CUMH and Co-lead of SPRING said: “As doctors and researchers working with women and their families who experience pregnancy loss and infertility, we identified that these difficult experiences are accompanied by a deep sense of frustration that these topics are not discussed with people until they happen to them.

“Speaking to women and healthcare professionals as part of my own research into the subject, they voiced that secondary school would be the ideal time to begin to raise awareness.

“It was obvious that the best way to engage with young people on these sensitive topics was to include them in their development.

“The girls at St Angela’s chose the name SPRING for the project to reflect their stage in life, and to represent their growth as they gained knowledge and awareness.

“The girls have shown incredible empathy and dedication in developing resources to share this key information with other young people,” she said.

Shelly Whelan is a geography and religion teacher at St Angela’s College, and she collaborated with the team from PLRG to roll out the project with the students.

“The girls were so excited about the project the moment they heard about it,” said Sally.

“There was so much interest in being part of the class, and there was a huge buzz around it. There was a thirst for information about fertility and pregnancy loss, and they wanted to know more and be informed,” she said.

“They also wanted to feel like this was a topic that they could talk about in wider circles and felt that it was knowledge that would not only empower them for their futures but was also going to be very important to share with others.”

Over the course of the year, the class of 24 students worked with myself and the team from the Pregnancy Loss Research Group.

“Every week we were timetabled for a double class where we all came together with the team from PLRG, initially to learn about fertility and pregnancy loss, and then go on to identify the 12 key statements that were felt to be the most important for teenagers to know in order to enable them to make choices for their own futures,” she added.

These 12 key statements then became the basis of the SPRING project, which they then worked with to create a booklet.

The resulting booklet was created in collaboration with illustrator Amy Lauren, to be shared on social media, posters, flyers, and other media in order to raise awareness and present clear and concise information.

“The girls engaged in a full-day workshop with Amy where they created inspirational references for the book illustrations,” Ms Whelan said. “They were also invited to a fertility awareness day during pregnancy loss week.

“For International Women’s Day in March, the girls worked with the student council and raised funds for Féileacáin, an incredible charity which works with women and families experiencing pregnancy loss.

“As a result, the students are now aware of fertility and are able to make choices about their own reproductive health. They have knowledge around what is considered normal and are aware of the signs that might prompt a GP visit,” Ms Whelan said.

All the hard work undertaken by the girls at St Angela’s has been recognised, and the project has been shortlisted for a Bright Spark Award under the Community Collaboration Award. Winners will be announced at the HSE’s SPARK summit today.

There is still some work to complete before the launch of the SPRING booklet after the summer.

The next phase of the project will be to examine how best to integrate these topics into the curriculum and to develop the necessary resources to facilitate their introduction nationally.

“Our plan is to secure funding to further develop materials for teachers to use and roll this out as a future routine TY model for this school, and then we hope to widen it out to other secondary schools in time,” said Professor O’Donoghue.

Dr Linehan is hopeful that fostering this awareness will yield some impactful results.

“Having an awareness of pregnancy loss and infertility can help women to not only manage these experiences themselves, but it can also provide them with the information to be able to help others around them who are experiencing reproductive health issues.

“Moreover, this information can facilitate various choices in their lives, as well as helping young people to recognise, and hopefully in time, eradicate, the barriers to reproductive justice. I believe that providing this awareness can foster a more empathetic and fairer society.”