The Myth of the Perfect Pregnancy: A History of Miscarriage in America
Dec 2019 · Oxford University Press
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About this ebook
When a couple plans for a child today, every moment seems precious and unique. Home pregnancy tests promise good news just days after conception, and prospective parents can track the progress of their pregnancy day by day with apps that deliver a stream of embryonic portraits. On-line due date calculators trigger a direct-marketing barrage of baby-name lists and diaper coupons. Ultrasounds as early as eight weeks offer a first photo for the baby book. Yet, all too often, even the best-strategized childbearing plans go awry. About twenty percent of confirmed pregnancies miscarry, mostly in the first months of gestation. Statistically, early pregnancy losses are a normal part of childbearing for healthy women. Drawing on sources ranging from advice books and corporate marketing plans to diary entries and blog posts, Lara Freidenfelds offers a deep perspective on how this common and natural phenomenon has been experienced. As she shows, historically, miscarriages were generally taken in stride so long as a woman eventually had the children she desired. This has changed in recent decades, and an early pregnancy loss is often heartbreaking and can be as devastating to couples as losing a child. Freidenfelds traces how innovations in scientific medicine, consumer culture, cultural attitudes toward women and families, and fundamental convictions about human agency have reshaped the childbearing landscape. While the benefits of an increased emphasis on parental affection, careful pregnancy planning, attentive medical care, and specialized baby gear are real, they have also created unrealistic and potentially damaging expectations about a couple's ability to control reproduction and achieve perfect experiences. The Myth of the Perfect Pregnancy provides a reassuring perspective on early pregnancy loss and suggests ways for miscarriage to more effectively be acknowledged by women, their families, their healthcare providers, and the maternity care industry.
Ratings and reviews
5.0
2 reviews
Ita
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July 15, 2020
Informative and compellingly written! The author reveals how the perception of miscarriage and pregnancy has evolved and how the modern view of pregnancy makes the emotional impact miscarriage more devastating than it needs to be. It explains how many different groups benefit from women becoming attached to their pregnancies from very early on, from toy companies to companies that sell pregnancy tests. But I think the most interesting portions were the letters and other personal accounts the author included, from colonial American diarists to modern day bloggers. I love that it normalizes miscarriage, although it does not touch in depth on fertility issues that go beyond a few miscarriages mixed in among healthy pregnancies. I definitely think more people should be informed about how common miscarriage is and how most of the time, no one is to blame. And, that most of the time, a woman who has miscarried will go on to have a healthy pregnancy in the future.
7 people found this review helpful
Elizabeth Foster
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January 31, 2023
my birth book
About the author
A historian of health, reproduction, and parenting in America, Lara Freidenfelds is the author of The Modern Period: Menstruation in Twentieth-Century America. She holds a PhD in the history of science from Harvard University and blogs at nursingclio.org and larafreidenfelds.com. She and her family live in New Jersey.
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