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One in five pregnancies in Ireland ends in miscarriage, yet this emotionally scarring experience is seldom discussed in public, and some hospitals are ill-equipped to assist those who have experienced it, writes FIONA McCANN

‘WHEN YOU HAVE been pregnant you realise that from the very moment you see the two lines you start planning the baby’s future,” says Fiona McPhillips, who had six miscarriages between the births of her first and second child. Although all of these took place in the delicate first 12 weeks of pregnancy, each marked an enormous loss to the would-be parents.