Barnet mother Eva Georgiou is showing up for women after miscarriage, one card at a time. She shares her story with Leïla Davaud

A man and two women (one of whom is a nurse) having a discussion in a hospital. — Eva Georgiou (centre) with Dan Tomlinson MP – (Credit – Office of Dan Tomlinson MP)

A shy smile tugs at the corner of her mouth. In a busy café on High Barnet’s main road, Eva Georgiou is stepping out of her comfort zone. Since last year, she has been quietly showing up for women going through pregnancy loss. Today, she has decided to share her story in the hope of change.

“I had a late miscarriage during Covid,” she begins. “I was offered a print of the scan that changed my future, some leaflets that I couldn’t bring myself to read and that was it. They broke the news so coldly. I felt extremely lonely and abandoned. Maybe because of the pandemic, the hospital’s support structure wasn’t running as it should have been but that was my reality. It was brutal.”

What followed was a grief with no dedicated card in the shop, no rehearsed words of comfort. Just silence. “We are usually told to try again, as if we will feel better once we are lucky enough to get pregnant. But through both my later pregnancies, I couldn’t relax. Up until my daughters’ births, I was scared I would lose them. The memories don’t simply go away. They stay with you, even when they aren’t fully acknowledged.”

Eventually, women around Eva began coming to her for advice after going through pregnancy loss themselves. “They were just as lost as I was. I wasn’t sure what to tell them. The truth is, you’re happy one minute, then someone bursts that bubble and it feels like they’ve just ruined your life. It sounds dramatic but that is how it feels. There is no real recognition for this type of loss.”

So Eva decided to make sure it wouldn’t stay that way. “I remembered that my family and friends sent me flowers. But one person sent me a card with a rainbow on it and a message of hope. That’s how I got the idea.”

She approached MP Dan Tomlinson and proposed a template card to be handed out by hospitals or by midwives. “So that couples have something to hold on to, something to keep. Something softer than a miscarriage certificate sent to you by post. The kind we would always receive if we had lost a recognised family member.”

The card is simple. A butterfly outline on the front, space for the scan inside, and room for support information on the back.

A white card with an image of a black and white image of a butterfly — A bereavement card

“It isn’t much, but I know I would have wanted something like this. Even if I wasn’t ready at first to look at the scan, I would have wanted a gentler proof that what I was going through was life-changing.”

Her cards are currently offered at North Middlesex, Barnet and Royal Free hospitals. The Whittington and UCH have agreed to follow, and are in progress. In the meantime, Eva is hoping to build a campaign to take her cards across the country.

“Seeing these structures pick up on this little gesture is helping me move on. It makes me hopeful that one day, this life-changing news will be delivered not just medically but humanly.”

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