Breaking the silence: An agenda for a feminist discourse of pregnancy loss

Feminist Studies

Volumn 23, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 289-315

  Layne, Linda L ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0009923593     PISSN: 00463663     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3178398     Document Type: Article

References (101)

1. It was this confusion that led me to realize that the subject was a rich one for anthropological analysis. For a discussion of first-person accounts in medical anthropology and science and technology studies, see Linda L. Layne, "'How's the Baby Doing?' Struggling with Narratives of Progress in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit," Medical Anthropology Quarterly 10, no. 4 (1997): 624-56.
2. Shulamit Reinharz remarks that women writing about their miscarriages frequently mention that they did not know anyone who had miscarried. See Shulamit Reinharz, "The Social Psychology of a Miscarriage: An Application of Symbolic Interaction Theory and Method," in Women and Symbolic Interaction, ed. Mary Jo Deegan and Michael Hill (Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1987), 235. Although many women I knew had miscarried, I didn't know they had. The same was true for my mother who had her children in the late 1940s and early 1950s and didn't realize she knew anyone who had had a miscarriage until her friends shared their experiences with her after my first loss. This taboo appears to have an even longer history in our culture. Reinharz quotes the diary of a late nineteenth-century Kansas woman who did not tell her parents of her pregnancy and as a result was unable to share her disappointment with them when she miscarried. Shulamit Reinharz, "Controlling Women's Lives: A Cross-Cultural Interpretation of Miscarriage Accounts," Research in the Sociology of Health Care 7 (1988): 27.
3. Shulamit Reinharz remarks that women writing about their miscarriages frequently mention that they did not know anyone who had miscarried. See Shulamit Reinharz, "The Social Psychology of a Miscarriage: An Application of Symbolic Interaction Theory and Method," in Women and Symbolic Interaction, ed. Mary Jo Deegan and Michael Hill (Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1987), 235. Although many women I knew had miscarried, I didn't know they had. The same was true for my mother who had her children in the late 1940s and early 1950s and didn't realize she knew anyone who had had a miscarriage until her friends shared their experiences with her after my first loss. This taboo appears to have an even longer history in our culture. Reinharz quotes the diary of a late nineteenth-century Kansas woman who did not tell her parents of her pregnancy and as a result was unable to share her disappointment with them when she miscarried. Shulamit Reinharz, "Controlling Women's Lives: A Cross-Cultural Interpretation of Miscarriage Accounts," Research in the Sociology of Health Care 7 (1988): 27.
4. The figure for pregnancy losses is based on retrospective reports of women in the 1982 and 1988 National Survey of Family Growth and therefore only includes losses of recognized pregnancies. See Stephanie J. Ventura et al., "Trends in Pregnancies and Pregnancy Rates: Estimates for the United States, 1980-1992," Monthly Vital Statistics Report, no. 43 (Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Center for Health Statistics, 1995), 12.
5. Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, vol. 1, An Introduction (New York: Random House, 1980), 5. Foucault puts forward an alternative to the conventional understanding of repression by seeing silences as part of discourse rather than something outside or opposed to discourse, 27.
6. In this, my account is not unlike the narratives of loss I am describing; what follows is a heterologic text which utilizes both medical and lay terms, as well as my own constructions such as "would-have-been parents" and "would-have-been child." Another important authoritative discourse often utilized in these accounts is that of psychology. See Shulamit Reinharz, "What's Missing in Miscarriage?" Journal of Community Psychology 16 (January 1988): 90-94.
7. Ibid., 85.
8. Reinharz, "The Social Psychology of a Miscarriage," 234.
9. Hank Pizer and Christine O'Brien Palinski, Coping with a Miscarriage: Why It Happens and How to Deal with Its Impact on Your Family (New York: Signet, 1980), 26.
10. Quoted in Reinharz, "Controlling Women's Lives," 4, 25-26.
11. Reinharz, "What's Missing in Miscarriage?" 89.
12. Claudia Panuthos, Transformation through Birth: A Woman's Guide (Boston: Bergin & Garvey, 1984), 157.
13. Sherokee Ilse, Presenting Unexpected Outcomes: A Childbirth Educator's Guide (Long Lake, Minn.: Wintergreen Press, 1989).
14. In considering the reasons that such topics are not normally presented by childbirth educators, Ilse mentions the "fear that participants will respond negatively on evaluations," fear that such discussions might provoke tears, and a sense that physicians would not like "having their patients exposed to 'fear-producing' information." See ibid., 8-9.
15. Linda L. Layne, "Motherhood Lost: The Cultural Construction of Pregnancy Loss in the United States" (New York: Routledge, forthcoming).
16. The same holds true for civil records in the United Kingdom; most pregnancy losses are not registered with the National Health Registry. See Alison MacFarlane and Miranda Mugford, Birth Counts: Statistics of Pregnancy and Childbirth (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1984). On the problems with epidemiological data on miscarriages, also see Reinharz, "What's Missing in Miscarriage?" 87.
17. The same holds true for civil records in the United Kingdom; most pregnancy losses are not registered with the National Health Registry. See Alison MacFarlane and Miranda Mugford, Birth Counts: Statistics of Pregnancy and Childbirth (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1984). On the problems with epidemiological data on miscarriages, also see Reinharz, "What's Missing in Miscarriage?" 87.
18. The definition of pregnancy loss also varies from one country to the next, making comparative study difficult. See MacFarlane and Mugford, 5.
19. Reinharz is a notable exception.
20. Reinharz, "Controlling Women's Lives," 5.
21. See E.M. Broner, "Honor and Ceremony in Women's Rituals," in The Politics of Women's Spirituality, ed. Charlene Spretnak (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1982), 234-44; Kay Turner, "Contemporary Feminist Rituals," in The Politics of Women's Spirituality, 219-33; Reinharz, "Controlling Women's Lives," 32.
22. See E.M. Broner, "Honor and Ceremony in Women's Rituals," in The Politics of Women's Spirituality, ed. Charlene Spretnak (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1982), 234-44; Kay Turner, "Contemporary Feminist Rituals," in The Politics of Women's Spirituality, 219-33; Reinharz, "Controlling Women's Lives," 32.
23. See E.M. Broner, "Honor and Ceremony in Women's Rituals," in The Politics of Women's Spirituality, ed. Charlene Spretnak (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1982), 234-44; Kay Turner, "Contemporary Feminist Rituals," in The Politics of Women's Spirituality, 219-33; Reinharz, "Controlling Women's Lives," 32.
24. Unite was started in 1974-75 "at Jeanes Hospital by several nursery nurses who saw [an] important need." Although initially the group was designed to help "parents of children who had birth defects or who were at high-risk due to prematurity, as well as for parents whose babies had died," by the time it issued its first newsletter in 1981, it defined itself as a "support group for parents who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death" and addressed its newsletter to "all individuals dealing either personally or professionally with infant or neonatal death." Kristen Iryle and Janis Heil, "What Unite Is," Unite Notes, no. 1 (1981): 1.
25. SHARE was established in 1977 at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Illinois. Its founder recalls knowing of only two other such groups at that time. SHARE changed its name in 1992 to SHARE Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support to better express its mission, which it defines as serving "those who are troubled by the tragic death of a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth, or newborn death."
26. John Bongaarts and Robert Potter, Fertility, Biology, and Behavior: An Analysis of the Proximate Determinants (New York: Academic Press, 1983), 39.
27. In my experience, pregnancy-loss support groups sometimes have members who come to mourn an ectopic pregnancy but do not ordinarily include would-have-been mothers who terminate a wished-for pregnancy because of the results of prenatal testing or for other reasons. Only occasionally does one find the parents of babies who die of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, presumably because there are special SIDS support groups and perhaps because most SIDS deaths take place after the baby has been home for some time.
28. After an introductory meeting, the topics presented were "Response of Family, Friends, and Medical Community"; "The Grieving Process and Coping with Grief"; "Impact of Pregnancy Loss on Primary Relationships"; "Individual Responses to Pregnancy Loss"; and "Where Do We Go from Here?"
29. Like other pregnancy outcomes, the frequency of pregnancy loss varies dramatically from country to country and appears to be linked to socioeconomic factors. See MacFarlane and Mugford, 103. See Ventura et al., 18.
30. Men write a somewhat larger portion of the professional items (16.13 percent for SHARE and 17.02 percent for Unite), but even for this type of contribution, women write the lion's share.
31. The topic is rarely mentioned in the newsletters, but in 1984 the editor of the SHARE newsletter responded to concern about the fact that Precious Feet pins with "the portion of the card that indicates that they are [a] Pro-Life" symbol removed were being given to parents who had a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy. She asserted: "As a group we do not take a stand on controversial issues. Individual members have their own views. Should a parent be asked if it is a Pro-Life symbol, they can answer simply that they wear it in memory of their baby who died early in pregnancy. I do not see that it needs to cause conflict." A 1995 issue provides a crossstitch pattern for a "precious" footprint. The experience of a pregnancy loss was important to some of the prolife activists studied by Kristin Luker in their decision to become active in the prolife movement. One-third of the prolife activists she studied reported some form of "parental loss" like infertility, a miscarriage, or death of an infant or child whereas only 6 percent of the prochoice activists reported such loss. See Kristin Luker, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 151-53, 284. This difference is accounted for, in part, by the fact that prolife activists have more children (i.e., get pregnant more often) than their prochoice counterparts (196-97) and a larger number of pregnancies means a greater chance of having a pregnancy loss.
32. But this move to speech raises a number of questions. Are members of these groups free not to speak or are they undergoing a new form of social control; are they experiencing an "incitement" to speak similar to that described by Foucault regarding sexuality? Are pregnancy-loss support groups merely another form of confession, "a confession of the flesh," where one must tell all? Foucault, History of Sexuality, 19.
33. Erving Goffman, Stigma (New York: Simon & chuster, 1986).
34. The systems of science and religion have been the subject of numerous cultural critiques over the past two decades.
35. Reinharz, "The Social Psychology of a Miscarriage," 232.
36. Linda L. Layne, "Of Fetuses and Angels: Fragmentation and Integration in Narratives of Pregnancy Loss," in Knowledge and Society, ed. David J. Hess and Linda L. Layne (Hartford: JAI Press, 1992), 29-58.
37. Linda L. Layne, "Motherhood Lost: Cultural Dimensions of Miscarriage and Stillbirth in America," Women and Health 16, no. 3 (1990): 75-104.
38. For a discussion of the material constitution of personhood in the case of pregnancy loss, see Linda L. Layne, "'I Remember the Day I Shopped for Your Layette': Of Gifts, Fetuses, and Feminism in the Context of Pregnancy Loss" (paper presented on the panel, "Material Culture: Making Meaning through the Design and Exchange of Things," Society for Social Studies of Science and the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology, Bielefeld, Germany, 1986).
39. Kristen Ingle, "Subsequent Pregnancy," Unite Notes 6, no. 2 (1986): 4-5.
40. Some Babies Die: An Exploration of Stillbirth and Neonatal Death, 16 mm, Martyn Langdon Down, producer, Australia, 1986.
41. Mickey Hoch, "A Miscarriage Hurts, Too," Unite Notes 8, no. 1 (1988): 3.
42. Pizer and Palinski, 56.
43. Lori Jones, "Another Angel," Unite Notes 8, no. 2 (1989): 4,
44. For a critique of these assumptions, see Colleen McDannel, Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 7.
45. A representative sample of the national adult population in the United States in 1964 found 50 percent of the Protestants and 48 percent of the Roman Catholics sampled were "absolutely sure" that "there is a life beyond death." See Rodney Stark and Charles Y. Glock, American Piety: The Nature of Religious Commitment (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), 38. According to Gallup and Castelli's 1989 survey, seven in ten Americans believe in life after death. See Lawrence J. Goodrich, "U.S. Religious Life Holds Steady," The Christian Science Monitor 28 (2 Jan. 1990): 12.
46. A representative sample of the national adult population in the United States in 1964 found 50 percent of the Protestants and 48 percent of the Roman Catholics sampled were "absolutely sure" that "there is a life beyond death." See Rodney Stark and Charles Y. Glock, American Piety: The Nature of Religious Commitment (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), 38. According to Gallup and Castelli's 1989 survey, seven in ten Americans believe in life after death. See Lawrence J. Goodrich, "U.S. Religious Life Holds Steady," The Christian Science Monitor 28 (2 Jan. 1990): 12.
47. This poem was first published as "Bereavement and Growth," in Unite Notes 1, no. 1 (1981): 2. It appears two years later in a collection of poetry by Marion Cohen, She Was Born, She Died: A Collection of Poems following the Death of an Infant (Omaha: Centering Corporation, 1983).
48. This poem was first published as "Bereavement and Growth," in Unite Notes 1, no. 1 (1981): 2. It appears two years later in a collection of poetry by Marion Cohen, She Was Born, She Died: A Collection of Poems following the Death of an Infant (Omaha: Centering Corporation, 1983).
49. Ron Herr, "A Letter to My Son," SHARE Newsletter 7, no. 3 (1984): 3; Pam Yoder, "Untitled," SHARE Newsletter 8, no. 2 (1985): 1.
50. Ron Herr, "A Letter to My Son," SHARE Newsletter 7, no. 3 (1984): 3; Pam Yoder, "Untitled," SHARE Newsletter 8, no. 2 (1985): 1.
51. Sally G. McMillen, Motherhood in the Old South: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Infant Rearing (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990). On angels in the context of infant loss in Brazil, see Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Death without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).
52. Sally G. McMillen, Motherhood in the Old South: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Infant Rearing (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990). On angels in the context of infant loss in Brazil, see Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Death without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).
53. Sherry B. Ortner, "On Key Symbols," American Anthropologist 75, no. 5 (1973): 1340.
54. Susan Yingling, "My Little Lisa Ann," SHARE Newsletter 9, no. 4 (1986): 2.
55. Renee M. Burgan, "To My Son, William Randolph Burgan," Unite Notes 1, no. 2 (1988): 4.
56. Russ Carlson and Julie Carlson, "In Memory of Todd Andrew Carlson," SHARE Newsletter 8, no. 1 (1985): 1.
57. Brad Smith, "Dear Emily," SHARE Newsletter 8, no. 3 (1986): 2.
58. Mickey Hoch, "A Letter for Francis," Unite Notes 6, no. 4 (1987): 5; Chera Correnti, "Hope," SHARE Newsletter 8, no. 4 (1985): 3.
59. Mickey Hoch, "A Letter for Francis," Unite Notes 6, no. 4 (1987): 5; Chera Correnti, "Hope," SHARE Newsletter 8, no. 4 (1985): 3.
60. Burgan, 4.
61. Dawn McClain, "My Little One," SHARE Newsletter 7, no. 4 (1988): 1.
62. April Palekar, "John Charles," Unite Notes 7, no. 2 (1988): 3.
63. Judy Ward, "Our Angel, Tuler Michael Rossi," SHARE Newsletter 10, no. 1 (1987): 2; Rick Yingling, "A Letter to Lisa," SHARE Newsletter 9, no. 4 (1986): 2.
64. Judy Ward, "Our Angel, Tuler Michael Rossi," SHARE Newsletter 10, no. 1 (1987): 2; Rick Yingling, "A Letter to Lisa," SHARE Newsletter 9, no. 4 (1986): 2.
65. Marion Cohen, "Funeral Poem #1," Unite Notes 1, no.1 (1981): 4.
66. Marion Cohen, "Funeral Poems," in She Was Born, She Died, 9.
67. One does hear frequent criticism leveled against individual physicians at pregnancy-loss support group meetings, and some are resisting physician-mediated access to their fetus/baby by becoming adept at reading sonogram screens or by buying their own stethoscopes so that they can listen to their baby's heartbeat anytime they choose, but these practices leave unquestioned the fundamental premises of obstetrical knowledge.
68. Michel de Certeau, Heterologies: Discourse on the Other (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986), 74.
69. Curiously, Reinharz does not mention the way miscarriage articulates with the abortion debate in her discussion of the "possible reasons that feminists have not contributed much to understanding women's experience of miscarriage." See her "What's Missing in Miscarriage?" 90.
70. Reinharz found that the depth of grief following a pregnancy loss corresponds "with the intensity of the desire for the child, not with the length of its life" and notes that her finding is supported by the sociological study done by Larry Peppers and Ronald Knapp. Reinharz, "Controlling Women's Lives," 27. Barbara Katz Rothman has made a similar point about women's experience of elective abortions. See Barbara Katz Rothman, Re-Creating Motherhood: Ideology and Technology in a Patriarchal Society (New York: W.W. Norton, 1989), 123. See Beth A. Conklin and Lynn M. Morgan, "Babies, Bodies, and the Production of Personhood in North American and a Native Amazonian Society," Ethos 24, no. 4 (1996): 657-94, for a cross-cultural discussion of the construction of fetal personhood.
71. Reinharz found that the depth of grief following a pregnancy loss corresponds "with the intensity of the desire for the child, not with the length of its life" and notes that her finding is supported by the sociological study done by Larry Peppers and Ronald Knapp. Reinharz, "Controlling Women's Lives," 27. Barbara Katz Rothman has made a similar point about women's experience of elective abortions. See Barbara Katz Rothman, Re-Creating Motherhood: Ideology and Technology in a Patriarchal Society (New York: W.W. Norton, 1989), 123. See Beth A. Conklin and Lynn M. Morgan, "Babies, Bodies, and the Production of Personhood in North American and a Native Amazonian Society," Ethos 24, no. 4 (1996): 657-94, for a cross-cultural discussion of the construction of fetal personhood.
72. Reinharz found that the depth of grief following a pregnancy loss corresponds "with the intensity of the desire for the child, not with the length of its life" and notes that her finding is supported by the sociological study done by Larry Peppers and Ronald Knapp. Reinharz, "Controlling Women's Lives," 27. Barbara Katz Rothman has made a similar point about women's experience of elective abortions. See Barbara Katz Rothman, Re-Creating Motherhood: Ideology and Technology in a Patriarchal Society (New York: W.W. Norton, 1989), 123. See Beth A. Conklin and Lynn M. Morgan, "Babies, Bodies, and the Production of Personhood in North American and a Native Amazonian Society," Ethos 24, no. 4 (1996): 657-94, for a cross-cultural discussion of the construction of fetal personhood.
73. Meyer Fortes remarks that: "death does not extinguish a person's participation in the life and activities of his family and community." See Meyer Fortes, "An Introductory Commentary," in Ancestors, ed. William H. Newell (The Hague: Mouton, 1976), 5. The iterative process of constructing personhood after death is particularly clear in the Japanese case-"full ancestorhood is conferred by worshippers in stages over a stretch of years and by cumulative rituals that simulate the ideal life cycle of the living" (ibid., 8).
74. Meyer Fortes remarks that: "death does not extinguish a person's participation in the life and activities of his family and community." See Meyer Fortes, "An Introductory Commentary," in Ancestors, ed. William H. Newell (The Hague: Mouton, 1976), 5. The iterative process of constructing personhood after death is particularly clear in the Japanese case-"full ancestorhood is conferred by worshippers in stages over a stretch of years and by cumulative rituals that simulate the ideal life cycle of the living" (ibid., 8).
75. See Rothman, Re-Creating Motherhood, 104.
76. Kenji Hayashi and Michael B. Bracken, "Hydatidiform Mole," in Perinatal Epidemiology, ed. Michael B. Bracken (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984).
77. For instance, on the ways that gift giving is implicated in the cultural construction of personhood during pregnancy, see Layne, "I Remember the Day."
78. Reinharz, "The Social Psychology of Miscarriage," 232, 243.
79. Margarete Sandelowski, With Child in Mind: Studies of the Personal Encounter with Infertility (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), 38, 40.
80. See, for instance, Rothman, Re-Creating Motherhood, 256.
81. Ester Goody, "Kinship Fostering in Gonja: Deprivation or Advantage?" in Socialization: The Approach from Social Anthropology, ed. Philip Mayer (London: Tavistock, 1970), 51-74, and "Forms of Pro-Parenthood: The Sharing and Substitution of Parental Roles," in Kinship: Selected Readings, ed. Jack Goody (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1971), 331-45; Caroline Bledsoe, "The Politics of Children: Fosterage and the Social Management of Fertility among the Mende of Sierra Leone," Births and Power: Social Change and the Politics of Reproduction, ed. W.P. Handwerker (Boulder: Westview Press, 1990), 81-100; Judith Modell, "Right to the Children: Foster Care and Social Reproduction in Hawaii," in Reproducing Reproduction, ed. Helena Ragone and Sarah Franklin (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 81; I.M. Soto, "West Indian Child Fostering: Its Role in Migrant Exchanges," in Caribbean Life in New York City (New York: Century Migration Studies, 1987), 131-49.
82. Ester Goody, "Kinship Fostering in Gonja: Deprivation or Advantage?" in Socialization: The Approach from Social Anthropology, ed. Philip Mayer (London: Tavistock, 1970), 51-74, and "Forms of Pro-Parenthood: The Sharing and Substitution of Parental Roles," in Kinship: Selected Readings, ed. Jack Goody (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1971), 331-45; Caroline Bledsoe, "The Politics of Children: Fosterage and the Social Management of Fertility among the Mende of Sierra Leone," Births and Power: Social Change and the Politics of Reproduction, ed. W.P. Handwerker (Boulder: Westview Press, 1990), 81-100; Judith Modell, "Right to the Children: Foster Care and Social Reproduction in Hawaii," in Reproducing Reproduction, ed. Helena Ragone and Sarah Franklin (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 81; I.M. Soto, "West Indian Child Fostering: Its Role in Migrant Exchanges," in Caribbean Life in New York City (New York: Century Migration Studies, 1987), 131-49.
83. Ester Goody, "Kinship Fostering in Gonja: Deprivation or Advantage?" in Socialization: The Approach from Social Anthropology, ed. Philip Mayer (London: Tavistock, 1970), 51-74, and "Forms of Pro-Parenthood: The Sharing and Substitution of Parental Roles," in Kinship: Selected Readings, ed. Jack Goody (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1971), 331-45; Caroline Bledsoe, "The Politics of Children: Fosterage and the Social Management of Fertility among the Mende of Sierra Leone," Births and Power: Social Change and the Politics of Reproduction, ed. W.P. Handwerker (Boulder: Westview Press, 1990), 81-100; Judith Modell, "Right to the Children: Foster Care and Social Reproduction in Hawaii," in Reproducing Reproduction, ed. Helena Ragone and Sarah Franklin (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 81; I.M. Soto, "West Indian Child Fostering: Its Role in Migrant Exchanges," in Caribbean Life in New York City (New York: Century Migration Studies, 1987), 131-49.
84. Ester Goody, "Kinship Fostering in Gonja: Deprivation or Advantage?" in Socialization: The Approach from Social Anthropology, ed. Philip Mayer (London: Tavistock, 1970), 51-74, and "Forms of Pro-Parenthood: The Sharing and Substitution of Parental Roles," in Kinship: Selected Readings, ed. Jack Goody (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1971), 331-45; Caroline Bledsoe, "The Politics of Children: Fosterage and the Social Management of Fertility among the Mende of Sierra Leone," Births and Power: Social Change and the Politics of Reproduction, ed. W.P. Handwerker (Boulder: Westview Press, 1990), 81-100; Judith Modell, "Right to the Children: Foster Care and Social Reproduction in Hawaii," in Reproducing Reproduction, ed. Helena Ragone and Sarah Franklin (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 81; I.M. Soto, "West Indian Child Fostering: Its Role in Migrant Exchanges," in Caribbean Life in New York City (New York: Century Migration Studies, 1987), 131-49.
85. Ester Goody, "Kinship Fostering in Gonja: Deprivation or Advantage?" in Socialization: The Approach from Social Anthropology, ed. Philip Mayer (London: Tavistock, 1970), 51-74, and "Forms of Pro-Parenthood: The Sharing and Substitution of Parental Roles," in Kinship: Selected Readings, ed. Jack Goody (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1971), 331-45; Caroline Bledsoe, "The Politics of Children: Fosterage and the Social Management of Fertility among the Mende of Sierra Leone," Births and Power: Social Change and the Politics of Reproduction, ed. W.P. Handwerker (Boulder: Westview Press, 1990), 81-100; Judith Modell, "Right to the Children: Foster Care and Social Reproduction in Hawaii," in Reproducing Reproduction, ed. Helena Ragone and Sarah Franklin (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 81; I.M. Soto, "West Indian Child Fostering: Its Role in Migrant Exchanges," in Caribbean Life in New York City (New York: Century Migration Studies, 1987), 131-49.
86. Rothman makes the useful distinction between "natural childbirth" and what she calls "prepared childbirth," noting that what are often called "natural childbirth" classes typically serve to "prepare" women for medically managed childbirth. See Barbara Katz Rothman, In Labor, 30-31.
87. I remember how excruciating it was for me, after just having seen a heartbreakingly static ultrasound screen, to go first to one window to pay for the office visit and then on to the next to schedule my D&C, all the while having to witness the cheerful exchanges between the nurses and all those other women who were still "expecting."
88. Ventura et al., 20.
89. Gina Maranto, "Delayed Childbearing," The Atlantic Monthly, June 1995, 55-56;
90. Rothman, Re-Creating Motherhood, 147
91. Rothman, Re-Creating Motherhood, 68-74, 72.
92. Sandelowski, 40.
93. Ibid.; see also Reinharz, "What's Missing in Miscarriage?" 86.
94. Ibid.; see also Reinharz, "What's Missing in Miscarriage?" 86.
95. Sandelowski, 22.
96. The Mildred Morgan Center for Birth and Women's Health, "Familyborn . . . An Idea Whose Time Has Come" (Princeton, N.J., 1985, brochure).
97. In "Mother Nature/Freaks of Nature: Cultural Constructions of Nature in Narratives of Pregnancy Loss" (paper presented at the Society for Social Studies of Science Annual Meeting, Gothenberg, Germany, 1992), I discuss how the cultural construction of pregnancy as an "achievement" and pregnancy loss as a "failure" focuses responsibility for such events on the would-have-been mother. There, I also discuss how, by defining pregnancy loss as natural, we occlude the ways that we may be collectively implicated in at least some pregnancy losses, such as via environmental toxins or poverty.
98. Without a doubt, the most prolific ritual maker has been the founder of SHARE, Sister Jane Marie Lamb. She has produced an extensive resource book for "planning farewell rituals." See Sister Jane Marie Lamb, ed., Bittersweet . . . Hellogoodbye: A Resource in Planning Farewell Rituals When a Baby Dies (Belleville, Ill.: Charis Communications, 1988).
99. With later losses, the nurturing acts of bathing and dressing the baby can be seen to focus on the relationship between the would-have-been parents and would-have-been child.
100. Linda L. Layne, Home and Homeland: The Dialogics of Tribal and National Identities in Jordan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).
101. Turner, 226.