Wanted to share exciting news that my manuscript was accepted for publication!!!

This survey study took place while I was at Yale and served as the director of the Yale Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Program and a voluntary board member of the peer to peer pregnancy loss community Hope after Loss (#hopeafterloss). I wanted to understand what individuals with pregnancy loss needed after their pregnancy loss so I could improve my clinical program. It was a simple 9 question survey monkey questionnaire which respondents could answer anonymously. We invited the Hope after Loss community to answer this survey and we had an amazing response of 793 respondents.

Here is a summary of the results from our manuscript:

75.8% of the respondents experienced first trimester losses, and 55.0% experienced more than one pregnancy loss. Respondents with three or more losses were more likely to see a reproductive endocrinologist compared to those experiencing one loss (15.7% vs 6.4%, p<0.01). The highest-ranked need among all respondents (45.5%) was understanding why their pregnancy loss occurred followed by family support (26.8%). However, those who had more than three losses or first trimester losses ranked preventing a future pregnancy loss over family support. Respondents with three or more losses more frequently desired a referral to a pregnancy loss team (37.5% vs 79.7% p<0.001). A qualitative analysis of respondents’ comments on how to provide patient-centered care revealed five major themes; the most frequently mentioned theme was staff preparedness, competence, and availability.

The uniqueness of our study was that we could compare the needs of individuals with multiple pregnancy losses to one pregnancy loss due to the high response rate.

Our findings show that after a pregnancy loss, the most important need is finding answers to why. Therefore, this is one big reason why I do what I do which is to try to carry out research to look for answers for my patients.

Again I would like to thank the Hope After Loss community for participating in my survey.