Myleene Klass says UK has a ‘culture of blame’ surrounding miscarriage as she becomes MBE

Exclusive: Former Hear’Say singer has been raising awareness of baby loss after having four miscarriages – and said ‘it’s shocking how many people at government level don’t choose to take it seriously’

Myleene Klass has reflected on the “culture of blame” surrounding baby loss in the UK, after being recognised in 2024’s New Year Honours for services to women’s health and miscarriage awareness.

Speaking to The Independent, the former Hear’Say singer and presenter said she was surprised when she received a letter two weeks ago telling her that she would be made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), and that she read it aloud with her family in her kitchen.

The 46-year-old, who has lost four babies through miscarriage, has spent years campaigning the government for change regarding miscarriage care and raising awareness around the psychological effects of baby loss, as seen in her Bafta-nominated documentary Myleene: Miscarriage and Me.

After “four years of real sadness”, Klass became inspired to start breaking down the stigma surrounding baby loss and campaigned for better support for women who have had similar experiences.

The musician said the most surprising aspect of her research and campaigning has been the lack of government attention to the cause.

“It’s shocking how many people at government level don’t choose to take it seriously,” she told The Independent. “It feels like the message is loud and clear for us women and it has been for centuries: just get on with it. Our grandmothers did it, our mothers did it – we don’t talk about it.”

She continued: “People don’t want to talk about dead babies, understandably. But at the same time, women are suffering silently, and if you walk into any given room, half of the [women] in that room will have come into contact with some form of baby loss.”

In the UK, baby loss isn’t discussed often despite the fact that an estimated one in five pregnancies end in miscarriage, which could add up to more than 250,000 miscarriages each year. Miscarriage is defined as losing a pregnancy before 24 weeks.

Myleene Klass has been working tirelessly to raise awareness (Photo by Kate Green/Getty)

“There’s no more isolating a feeling when you lose a child,” said Klass. “Because one moment you have everything in the world and the next minute you walk out of the hospital after your D&C [a surgical procedure post-miscarriage] and you have nothing.”

“There is no baby carrier, there’s no baby. We walk into a house that was preparing nursery, children that were excited for a sibling, grandparents that don’t know whether to ask the questions or not. The forlorn looks that your friends give you. We don’t realise that, for a woman, it never ever stops.”

Klass thinks that there’s a toxic culture surrounding miscarriage in the UK, which results in women being asked questions about their baby loss as if it’s their own fault. All of this, she says, points to a lack of education on the topic.

“We have such a culture of blame. Like, ‘What did you do? What did you eat? Did you have that coffee? What did you lift?’ We have a real fear of death in this country, of saying the wrong thing and so we just say nothing, which is also the wrong thing.”

The presenter and singer has lost four babies through miscarriage (Gareth Cattermole/Getty)

Her main campaigning currently focuses on eradicating the current NHS rule that only introduces medical intervention after a woman has had three consecutive miscarriages.

“Imagine if I said. ‘You come back after your third heart attack and then we’ll have a look.’ You have to wait for three consecutive miscarriages before there is any kind of medical intervention. It’s archaic.”

“I’ve asked medical professionals and they say there is no reasonable explanation for this. For me, all four of my miscarriages were all unrelated. So waiting actually proved nothing [and] early intervention would have helped.”

In October, the government introduced a system for parents who have experienced miscarriages to be able to apply for a certificate that acknowledges their bereavement.

While Klass understands the baby loss certificates to be a “keepsake”, she thinks it’s a “placebo” for a wider problem of government inaction.

“It’s for many a lovely peaceful keepsake, but for others who are still looking for medical intervention and answers, they need something concrete and we need data,” she said. “The certificates are not official government documents. When you can’t officialise that it doesn’t go in your GP records, it doesn’t go into any kind of data.”

“It just feels like we’re doing these women a disservice, we’re almost giving them a placebo. It’s not enough,” she said.

Looking ahead to 2025, Klass said her main goal is uncovering data and urging the government to record it.

“2025 for me is data. We need to know how many women this is happening to, why it’s happening, how it’s running in families, how that affects siblings further down the line. And we need education for young girls and boys have to look after their fertility and what to do when it goes wrong. This is far from the end.”