Tag Archives: miscarriage

Miscarriage: a medical student in a rural clinic, Central America, 1977

April 14, 2022

Paul Rousseau Charleston, South Carolina, United States   A small town in Honduras. Photo by kristin klein on Flickr. CC BY 2.0. Elena sits perched on a gurney with claret-stained thighs. She has just miscarried in the clinic’s lavatory. She inquires of the gender of the fetus, and hands twitching and heart flapping, I blurt, […]

A brief life

September 18, 2020

Andrea Eisenberg  Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, United States   Photo by Luis Galvez on Unsplash  I felt his legs wiggling in the sac of warm fluid surrounding him. His body was so tiny, his kicks were like a feather passing across my fingers. But his warm, dark world was about to slip away. Did he already sense it? Or […]

“Blood made White”: The relationship between blood and breastmilk in early modern England

November 4, 2019

Jennifer Evans Sara Read United Kingdom   Womb (uterus), enlarged, Hendrik Bary, after Reinier de Graaf, 1672, Rijksmuseum. The early modern body was thought to be composed of and ordered by an intricate balance of fluids, the most important of which was blood. Blood was universally understood to have two origins: the heart and the […]

Avulsions

April 26, 2019

Torree McGowan Culver, Oregon, United States   The Chasm between the Then and The Now. Photo by the author, taken near Denali National Park. There are moments in life that serve as a dividing line. These instants sharply incise our worlds into before and after, the then and the now. Moments shimmer like a crystalline […]

“Sara, Bill, Kristine, … you’re pregnant!” Gestational surrogacy, biomedicalized bodies and reconceptualizations of motherhood

November 20, 2017

Eva-Sabine Zehelein Frankfurt, Germany   The day we left the hospital, a therapist from the perinatal loss department presented us with two death certificates and asked us if we wanted the bodies for a burial. . . . We were being taken out the back like the trash, sparing those families who came to the […]

The missing chapter in our curriculum

March 21, 2017

Alexandra Adams Hershey, Pennsylvania   A maternity nurse examines a pregnant patient at a rural community health center in northern Uganda. Photo by Alexandra Adams. The rural village of Paimol in northern Uganda, located four hours away from the nearest hospital.  Photo by Alexandra Adams.   A fourteen-year-old girl, large with child, presented to her community health […]

A silent birth

January 27, 2017

Rose A. Devasia Louisville, Kentucky, United States   Photography by Salihan Laugesen As a physician married to another physician, I tried to do everything right during my first pregnancy. I took prenatal vitamins and folic acid before trying to conceive. I avoided any substance that could harm my baby. Caffeine, sushi, deli meat, wine—gone. I […]

Emotional medicine

January 27, 2017

Lauren Fore Dominica, West Indies   Photography by Cristian Bernal Over the past several months, I have come to the realization that when my role of medical student switches to patient, most of my rational medical knowledge goes out the window. Last month, my husband and I found out that we were expecting our first […]

Lost Babies: how a photosculpture is changing the etiquette of consolation

January 24, 2017

Nancy Gershman Figure 1 Kari Ruth in Intensive Care Figure 2 Kari Ruth re-envisioned as a Lost Baby Digital photomontage photo sculpture 8″ x 10″ x .125″   The mother who loses her full-term baby goes home with the five stages of grief (Elisabeth Kübler-Ross), funeral home pamphlets, and a support group calendar. But the […]

Mother’s Day is Different this Year

January 23, 2017

Diana Heiman Park Ridge, Illinois, USA Poet’s statement: Poetry writing has been a coping skill for me since I was a child. The inspiration for this poem is a recent miscarriage. Mother’s Day is different this year Early morning lump in my throat Tender breasts as I shift in my sleep Such weird sensations, could […]