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Dec.
16, 2002 |
Anthropology Professor's New Book Explores
Taboo Topic of Pregnancy Loss
 After
suffering the first of seven heartbreaking miscarriages in 1986,
Rensselaer anthropology professor Linda Layne vowed to bring to
light the subject of pregnancy loss. Now, nearly two decades later,
Layne presents her findings in a new book titled Motherhood
Lost: A Feminist Account of Pregnancy Loss in America (Routledge,
2003). In it, she challenges society and women's movements to
publicly discuss miscarriage and stillbirth and to offer more
helpful support for "would-be" parents.
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Layne found that middle class American women who
suffered pregnancy losses in the late twentieth century dealt
with two contradicting forces. Factors like new reproductive technologies,
smaller family sizes, and abortion politics, for example, changed
the experience of pregnancy, and led many to think of their fetuses
as "babies" much earlier than had previously been the
case. But at the same time, she writes, parents who lost babies
found themselves without adequate social support, since deep-seated
cultural taboos prevented friends and family from talking about
the loss. She recommends that feminists promote open discussion
of pregnancy loss and that doctors better educate patients about
possible pregnancy difficulties. Layne also urges science reporters
to offer more measured perspectives about the state of reproductive
medicine.
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"Grief for a dead loved one may be
both inevitable and necessary, but the additional hurt that
bereaved parents feel when their losses are dismissed and
diminished by others is needless and cruel. It is high time
we recognize pregnancy loss and offer our support."
—Linda Layne —
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"Grief for a dead loved one may be both inevitable
and necessary, but the additional hurt that bereaved parents feel
when their losses are dismissed and diminished by others is needless
and cruel," Layne writes in the final chapter of the book.
"It is high time we recognize pregnancy loss and offer our
support."
Motherhood Lost, which was released in
late November, is already having an impact. UNITE and SHARE, two
pregnancy loss support groups, have endorsed the book. Layne also
is being quoted in The New York Times Magazine and The
Boston Globe as an expert in this emerging field of research.
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