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"1 in 13 children in sub-Saharan Africa died before reaching her or his fifth birthday" (2018) You can say that's Whataboutism, but for most of history losing

"1 in 13 children in sub-Saharan Africa died before reaching her or his fifth birthday" (2018) You can say that's Whataboutism, but for most of history losing a child was what happened to most people. So calling the sadness and awful experience from a miscarriage 'long-term post-traumatic stress' might be technically true one in six times if physiologists say so (not sure they have, the BBC has), to me that just further stigmatizes what is a sad but common occurrence no one talks about and implies we all live with trauma which can't be healthy to keep shoving down our throats.

sparker72678 7y ago
> for most of history losing a child was what happened to most people Even if true, that doesn't mean it wasn't heartbreaking and didn't have long-term effects on the family.
- aaron695 7y ago
  Trauma and PTSD like suicide is contagious. Giving it to women and their partners who have a miscarriage or the loss of a child is also heartbreaking. I'm not saying don't talk about, I'm just saying calling it trauma and PTSD will irrevocably harm some people and possibly hurt more than it will help. I don't think the media should lie even if it harms people. But equally I don't think the story here is a story that justifies the harm it might cause, they still can tell the truth responsibly if the BBC just took care and didn't chase clicks.
  - tptacek 7y ago
    This is a deeply silly analysis. PTSD is a fairly specific and in many ways physical set of reactions to trauma; if you've had no personal exposure to it, you'd be unlikely to describe it convincingly to a professional, let alone somehow incubate it in your own mind simply by a suggested association. It's been suggested that PSTD can be "contagious", but the connection between "PTSD" and a specific trauma (ie: the belief that some specific trauma "is supposed to" cause PTSD) isn't the vector. If something causes PTSD, it causes PTSD. Pretending otherwise doesn't prevent it.
kgwgk 7y ago
‘In 1900, 30 percent of all deaths in the United States occurred in children less than 5 years of age compared to just 1.4 percent in 1999 [...] Infant mortality dropped from approximately 100 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1915 (the first year for which data to calculate an infant mortality rate were available) to 29.2 deaths per 1,000 births in 1950 and 7.1 per 1,000 in 1999” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK220806/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK220806/

sparker72678 7y ago

> for most of history losing a child was what happened to most people Even if true, that doesn't mean it wasn't heartbreaking and didn't have long-term effects on the family.

aaron695 7y ago
Trauma and PTSD like suicide is contagious. Giving it to women and their partners who have a miscarriage or the loss of a child is also heartbreaking. I'm not saying don't talk about, I'm just saying calling it trauma and PTSD will irrevocably harm some people and possibly hurt more than it will help. I don't think the media should lie even if it harms people. But equally I don't think the story here is a story that justifies the harm it might cause, they still can tell the truth responsibly if the BBC just took care and didn't chase clicks.
- tptacek 7y ago
  This is a deeply silly analysis. PTSD is a fairly specific and in many ways physical set of reactions to trauma; if you've had no personal exposure to it, you'd be unlikely to describe it convincingly to a professional, let alone somehow incubate it in your own mind simply by a suggested association. It's been suggested that PSTD can be "contagious", but the connection between "PTSD" and a specific trauma (ie: the belief that some specific trauma "is supposed to" cause PTSD) isn't the vector. If something causes PTSD, it causes PTSD. Pretending otherwise doesn't prevent it.

kgwgk 7y ago

‘In 1900, 30 percent of all deaths in the United States occurred in children less than 5 years of age compared to just 1.4 percent in 1999 [...] Infant mortality dropped from approximately 100 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1915 (the first year for which data to calculate an infant mortality rate were available) to 29.2 deaths per 1,000 births in 1950 and 7.1 per 1,000 in 1999” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK220806/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK220806/