It's time for our babies to be counted.
We are advocating for the national collection of early pregnancy loss data and for our babies' lives to be counted in the Australian Census.
The Data Deficiency
Unfortunately, the Australian Bureau of Statistics rejected our submission for an inclusive census to recognise babies lost prior to 20 weeks gestation. This rejection hampers our understanding of the scale and impact of miscarriage on society.
The lack of comprehensive data collection is a significant roadblock to addressing the needs of grieving families.
“What gets counted, gets funded, gets researched." Without clear data, we cannot allocate the necessary resources to drive change.
This rejection once again disenfranchises our grief, it says to our community your experience is not worthy of being measured. We LOUDLY disagree with this and will continue to campaign for a national collection of data of all early pregnancy losses in Australia.
At Pink Elephants we see the impact of not collecting the data. We support parents who can't access timely medical intervention at a local EPAS, who drive hundreds of kilometers to a metropolitan EPAS - this is just one example. We have many examples of how the data deficiency is causing actual harm and added trauma to our community, not to mention those of you who were triggered by the lack of inclusion of our babies in the census that further disenfranchised our grief.
As organisational members of the EPLC (Early Pregnancy Loss Coalition) we support their goal that 'Australia must collect miscarriage data for the development of fit-for-purpose public health policy, appropriate funding decisions, and health services'. We are working collaboratively with cross-sector organisations to identify how we can collectively move forward and ensure that our babies are counted.
READ SMH ARTICLE
Hear from our Co-Founder & CEO Sam Payne
Pink Elephants will continue to fight to have our babies counted and for a national collection of pregnancy loss data.
Organisations Supporting This Advocacy
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