Introduction
Toward a Feminist Epistemology of Loss
Emily R.M. Lind

I. BREAKING THE SILENCE

Chapter One
Communicating Miscarriage:
Coping with Loss, Uncertainty, and Self-Imposed Stigma
Masha Sukovic and Margie Serrato

Chapter Two
Timeline of a Maternal Breakdown:
A Feminist Mother’s Blog Post About Her
Abortion Experience
Angie Deveau

Chapter Three
Grief, Shame, and Miscarriage
Nancy Gerber

II. PREGNANCY AS RELATIONAL

Chapter Four
Believing Is Seeing Is Believing:
Elective Abortion and Visual Closure
Mary Thompson

Chapter Five
The Ambiguous Space of Motherhood:
The Experience of Stillbirth
Maya E. Bhave

Chapter Six
Full Circle:
Exploring the Maternal Ambivalence of a
Motherless Daughter
Natalie Morning

III. REFRAMING PREGNANCY LOSS

Chapter Seven
Reframing the Devastation and Exclusion Associated
with Pregnancy Loss:
A Normal and Growth-Enhancing Component of the
Physiological Female Continuum
Keren Epstein-Gilboa

Chapter Eight
failing
j wallace skelton

Chapter Nine
Fatphobia, Pregnancy Loss, and My Hegemonic Imagination:
A Story of Two Abortions
Emily R.M. Lind

Chapter Ten
Missed Miscarriage
Robin Silbergleid

Chapter Eleven
Full-Term Baby Loss: A How-to Guide for Mothers
Rachel O’Donnell

Chapter Twelve
How to Hear a Story: Reflections on the
Anniversary of My Rape
Rhobi Jacobs

IV. INTERROGATING THE MEDICALIZED LOGICS OF
PREGNANCY LOSS

Chapter Thirteen
A Death Certificate, an Autopsy Report,
a Pile of Insurance Claims
Elizabeth Heineman

Chapter Fourteen
Failing Infertility: A Case to Queer the Rhetoric of Infertility
Maria Novotny

Chapter Fifteen
A Feminist Perspective on Selective Termination

Brittany Irvine

V. MEMORIALIZING LOSS

Chapter Sixteen
Enacting Acknowledgment, Meaning, and Acceptance:
Personal Ceremony and Ritual as Helpful Ways to Engage
with Feelings of Loss After Abortion
Miriam Rose Brooker

Chapter Seventeen
Queering Reproductive Loss:
Exploring Grief and Memorialization
Christa Craven and Elizabeth Peel

About the Contributors

Emily R.M. Lind is a doctoral candidate at Carleton University’s Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art, and Culture. Her research examines the intersections between identity, materiality, power, and knowledge production in interdisciplinary contexts. She is currently writing her dissertation on settler colonialism, Canadian art, and early twentieth-century Toronto.

Angie Deveau is a graduate of York University’s Women’s Studies M.A. Program and has been working for the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement for nearly five years. Previously, she provided research assistance for York University’s Gender & Work Database, York University’s ‘Women’s Human Rights, Macroeconomics and Policy Choices’ project and the ‘Adolescent Health and Wellbeing Study’ at UNB. In addition to her background in research, Angie has worked as a Case Management Assistant for the Province of Nova Scotia’s Department of Community Services (Social Assistance Division), and as the Community Development Coordinator for the Victorian Order of Nurses/Help the Aged project in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She is currently in the planning stages of co-editing a collection on Mothering and Yoga, Meditation, and Mindfulness.