"Time with Babe": Seeing Fetal Remains after Pregnancy Termination for Impairment. (3rd April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mitchell, Lisa M.
• Is Part Of: Medical anthropology quarterly. Volume 30:Number 2(2016:Jun.)
• Page Start: 168
• Page End: 185
• Publication Date: 2016-04-03
• Subjects: fetal remains -- visibility -- pregnancy loss -- abortion; Medical anthropology -- Periodicals; Anthropology -- Periodicals; Antropología médica -- Publicaciones periódicas; Anthropologie médicale -- Périodiques; Médecine sociale -- Périodiques; Ethnomédecine -- Périodiques; Medische antropologie; Anthropologie médicale; Computer network resources; Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 306.461
• DOI: 10.1111/maq.12173
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0745-5194

Abstract

Abstract : Some North American hospitals now offer parents the opportunity to see, hold, and photograph fetal remains after pregnancy loss. I explore the social, material, and interpretive strategies mobilized to create this fetal visibility after second trimester–induced abortion for fetal anomaly. My analysis examines both the discursive framing of fetal remains in practice guidelines on pregnancy loss and the responses of a group of Canadian women to being offered "time with babe." I show that while guidelines tend to frame contact with fetal remains as a response to women's desires to see their baby and to feel like mothers, women's experiences of this contact were shaped by more diverse wishes and concerns as well as by specific abortion practices and practitioner comments and actions.