Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: miscarriage

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

    Paul RousseauCharleston, South Carolina, United States 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, unexpectedly and duplicitously (for I could not know), “Una bebita.” A little girl. A guttural sob…

  • A brief life

    Andrea Eisenberg Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, United States 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 did he swim peacefully, oblivious…

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

    Jennifer EvansSara ReadUnited Kingdom 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 liver. Together with the brain, these organs formed what Galen called “the noble organs.”…

  • Avulsions

    Torree McGowanCulver, Oregon, United States 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 barrier, allowing you to see so clearly through to what was, but that past is just out of reach.…

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

    Eva-Sabine ZeheleinFrankfurt, 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 hospital and…

  • The missing chapter in our curriculum

    Alexandra AdamsHershey, Pennsylvania A fourteen-year-old girl, large with child, presented to her community health center in northern Uganda. Blood was rushing down her legs, and she was doubled over in pain. Immediately, the medical officer called the ambulance. Tears ran down the girl’s face—she never wanted this baby. She had asked the nurses to help…

  • A silent birth

    Rose A. DevasiaLouisville, Kentucky, United States 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 went to prenatal yoga (another name…

  • Emotional medicine

    Lauren ForeDominica, West Indies 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 child. We had just started trying…

  • Lost Babies: How a photosculpture is changing the etiquette of consolation

    Nancy GershmanChicago, Illinois, United States 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 well-meaning friends and family who await her return have little if no experience with consolation. They will prattle on about how So and…

  • Plaintive music

    Ron DomenPennsylvania, United States Poet’s statement The loss of an unborn child through miscarriage, abortion, or premature death is always a highly charged emotional event for the parents. My poem is an attempt to not only capture the emotion of such an event but also to be mindful that life is renewed. The inspiration for…