The surprisingly beautiful thing that happens to miscarried and terminated foetuses in Victoria.

In suburban Melbourne there is a garden that looks just like any other.

It’s lush and green after plenty of recent rain. It’s lined with trees and flowers. And it has chairs on which passers-by can sit and reflect.

But it is also the final resting place of the majority of terminated and miscarried babies from the country’s largest specialist public hospital for women and newborns.

Dr Paddy Moore, head of the early pregnancy service at Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital, told Mamamia that the hospital’s ‘default’ position for the disposal of foetal tissue, where women did not make a choice or said “do what you usually do”, was cremating and scattering it at a garden in suburban Melbourne.

“I’ve actually followed that whole pathway through so I can tell women about what the place is and what it feels like to go and sit there,” Dr Moore said.

“And it’s a very nice memorial garden. There are chairs and trees and you can sit and think there if you want to.”

She said women who undergo surgical terminations and D&C procedures after miscarriage have a range of options explained to them.

“They can either choose the ethical scattering of ashes, or they can choose to have a private burial… or they can take the material home to bury,” Dr Moore said.

“It’s really variable what women wish to know or be involved in. It’s a conversation that you have to carry very delicately and find out how much information they want, because some women feedback to us that they are offended that we talk about the tissue afterwards.”

Dr Moore said there was a cultural aspect to the decision for some women.

“For example, in Maori and Pacific Island culture, it’s actually really important to some women to take the tissue home and bury it on the land,” she said.

Dr Moore said donating the tissues for research (particularly around cell behaviour or stem cell research) was an option, but only when the hospital was conducting a study, or was involved in a multi-centre study.

She said the hospital hadn’t been involved in such a research program in at least eight years, but “women’s generosity was very high” during a previous study she was involved in where foetal tissue was used for cancer research.

“The women had a very, very high rate of wishing to donate when they had that option,” Dr Moore said.

“They were very comfortable with doing that when the study was explained.”

A NSW Health spokesperson said hospitals across the state offered families a range of options, including group cremation and burial at a local cemetery so parents had a place to visit should they wish to, donating foetal tissue to research or a tissue bank, or medical disposal.

A private abortion clinic in Melbourne told Mamamia foetal tissue was disposed of as medical waste.

Dr Moore said it was important to reassure Australian women – especially in the wake of the US scandal involving a heavily edited video of a Planned Parenthood executive purportedly selling foetal body parts – that the area was heavily legislated and medical institutions had to be very transparent about their procedures.

“In Australia, there isn’t a risk of something happening that they weren’t aware of,” she said.

“We have a way of doing things that is very transparent.”

And surprisingly compassionate.