Professor Co-Authors CNN Op-Ed on Facebook Founder’s Miscarriage Message.

In an op-ed article written for CNN, Professor Eugene Declercq and School of Medicine Professor Jodi F. Abbott examine the potential implications of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s revelation that he and wife Pricilla Chan endured multiple miscarriages over the past several years.

In a public post on his Facebook page, Zuckerberg and Chan shared that the couple is expecting a baby girl, but that their good news follows three miscarriages. Declercq, a professor of maternal and child health, and Abbott, vice chair for education at the School of Medicine Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, write that the viral spread of this personal experience is a “valuable step forward in starting a public discussion about the issue.”

“We need to raise awareness that pregnancy loss is part of millions of women’s reproductive lives,” they write. “Women don’t have to feel devastated and alone when they experience such a loss.”

While only 1 percent of women experience more than one pregnancy loss, the authors say that miscarriages are very common. About 20 percent of women who deliver a child have had a prior miscarriage, the authors wrote, with miscarriages becoming more common as women age.