A Women's Health Model for Pregnancy Loss: A Call for a New Standard of Care

Abstract

ONE IN FIVE RECOGNIZED PREGNANCIES ends in pregnancy loss. Despite the women's health movement's emphasis on empowering women by making sure they know what they may expect during labor and what their options will be if difficulties arise, no such advances have occurred regarding pregnancy loss. Healthcare providers are doing a bet ter job of assisting women whose pregnancies end in loss once a loss has occurred, especially for later losses, but this assistance is only offered ex post facto. In my book, Motherhood Lost: A Feminist Account of Pregnancy Loss in America,' published in 2003, 1 describe the unique historical and cultural forces that shaped the experience of pregnancy loss of many middle-class American women during the last quarter of the twentieth century. I noted how such women found themselves at the confluence of strong, contradictory cultural forces such as fairly low infant mortality rates; the Second Wave feminist ethos that reproduction was something one should and could control; earlier medical management of pregnancies, including home pregnancy tests and fetal imaging technologies; smaller family size; and later age for first pregnancies. All these factors contributed to greater emotional and social investment in early pregnancies. Furthermore,