Motherhood Lost: The Cultural Construction of Miscarriage and Stillbirth in America

369 Pages·2013·14.479 MB·English

by  Linda L. Layne

Motherhood Lost
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Motherhood Lost
A Feminzst Account
ofP regnancy Loss
in America
LINDA L. LAYNE
I
~ ~~o~;~~n~~~up
LONDON AND NEWYORK
First published 2003 by Routledge
Published 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OXI4 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint ofthe Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2003 by Taylor & Francis Books, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or here
after invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information stor
age or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Library of Congress Cataloging in publieation data
Layne, Linda L.
Motherhood lost: a feminist aeeount of pregnaney loss in Ameriea /
by Linda L. Layne.
p.em.
Includes bibliographieal referenees and index.
ISBN 0-415-91149-4--ISBN 0-415-91148-6 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-415-91148-1 (pbk)
1. Motherhood-United States. 2. Pregnaney-Complieations
United States. 3. Fetal death-United States. I. Tide.
HQ759.L3792002
306.874'3-de21
2002021336
For Beth Layne, my mother
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Contents
Acknowledgments
IX
CHAPTER 1 My Miscarriage Years 1
CHAPTER2 Caught in the Middle: Pregnancy Loss 9
at the Turn of the Century
CHAPTER 3 Pregnancy-Loss Support 41
CHAPTER4 Challenges to Narratives ofLinear Progress 59
CHAPTER5 New Reproductive Technologies 81
and the Fetal Subject
CHAPTER6 "He Was a Real Baby with Baby Things": 103
A Material Culture Analysis ofPersonhood,
Parenthood, and Pregnancy Loss
CHAPTER 7 "True Gifts from God": 145
Paradoxes of Motherhood, Sacrifice,
and Enrichment
CHAPTER8 "Nev er Such Innocence Again": 173
Irony, Nature, and Technoscience
CHAPTER 9 "I Will Never Forget You": 199
Trauma, Memory, and Moral Identity
CHAPTER 10 Breaking the Silence: A Feminist Agenda 235
for Pregnancy Loss
Notes 251
Selected Bibliography 299
Index 347
Vll
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Acknowledgments
The process of researching and writing this book has been complexly inter
woven with the lengthy and arduous process of forming my family. It began
on the day that I had my first miscarriage, and continued through four more
miscarriages, the adoption of our eldest son, the traumatic birth of our
youngest, through two more miscarriages, and then, finally, the decision to
call our family complete.
During the fourteen years of these interrelated projects, I have been for
tunate to have had the support of numerous institutions, colleagues, and
friends. Just as members of pregnancy-Ioss support groups fear the effects
of the passage of time on memory, I am afraid that time has obscured my
memory and that, in the future, some incident will trigger my memory of
others whose help I ought to have publicly acknowledged. If you are among
those I have failed to recognize here, please trust that your help was appreci
ated and will be remembered.
Let me begin by acknowledging the members and leaders of the preg
nancy-Ioss support groups who are the subject of this book. Those I had the
privilege of meeting were exceptionally kind and giving. Thank you for shar
ing your stories with me, supporting my work, and providing such a warm
and welcoming community. The leaders and members ofUNITE, SHARE,
and the New York Section of the National Council for Jewish Women
welcomed me warmly as a parent and later as a professional. It has been
wonderful working in such a supportive environment, and I am deeply ap
preciative of both the work they are doing and the assistance they extended
to me.
My research was funded by a grant-in-aid from the Wenner-Gren
Foundation for Anthropological Research and a Paul Beer Minigrant Award.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute provided two semester-Iong sabbatical
leaves, which enabled me to work on the book. In 1997-98 I undertook re
search on "Environmental Hazards and Pregnancy Loss" sponsored by the
IX