“I’m pregnant”: why the 12-week ‘rule’ matters

Since losing my 41 week old baby to stillbirth in June, understandably I’ve been a lot more conscious of debates around pregnancy and baby loss. In particular, reading Katy Lindemann’s opinion piece on the ’12 week rule’ in the Guardian in October has really stuck with me.

The 12 week rule is the convention that you don’t publicly announce your pregnancy until 3 months in, because after that time the chance of miscarriage drops significantly. The charity Tommy’s estimates that around 1 in 4 recognised pregnancies end in loss, and around 85% of these…