Early Miscarriage in The Lives Of Women, Historic And Modern

by Catherine Rafferty

 Lara Freidenfelds, an independent researcher, spoke at Rochester Institute of Technology about the myth of a perfect pregnancy on Oct. 7, 2019. Her talk, "Making Babies, Making Miscarriages: Ultrasound, Home Pregnancy Testing, and Early Pregnancy Loss", is part of the Women and Gender Studies Speaker series, sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts Women and Gender Studies Program, the Dean’s Office, and Department of History. She read excerpts from her new book The Myth of Perfect Pregnancy: A History of Miscarriage in America. There were about 15 students and faculty in the audience for the talk.

 Dr. Corinna Schlombs, a professor in history, explained the series is part of an effort to bring visibility to the WGS program as it works towards proposing a degree program. Schlombs also expressed an interest in reaching out to the College of Health Science and Technology through Freidenfelds’ talk, bringing technology into the conversation around women’s issues. The event also had a personal connection for Schlombs, who endured a miscarriage herself.

“I think some of the topics that Women and Gender Studies addresses have really important repercussions when it comes to women's health questions,” Schlombs said. “I knew that her thoughts about how technology shapes pregnancy and miscarriage would have particular resonance here at RIT’s tech-driven campus.”

Freidenfelds addressed the history of the American perception of early pregnancy loss from the 18th century to the present day. Women during the 18th century did not perceive early pregnancy losses to be the death of a child and rather viewed it as an unsuccessful pregnancy. Freidenfelds connects the contemporary feelings of connection to the fetus, and subsequent emotional toll an early miscarriage has on a woman, with the development of doppler and ultrasound technology.

 She also discussed how the “ritual” of ultrasounds as early as eight weeks after conception has created a false expectation for women when the chances of losing the pregnancy are still high. She showed pop culture examples, such as Glee and YouTube bloggers, that have reinforced the excitement around the event of an ultrasound.  

“Early modern women were not ignorant about their bodies. On the contrary, they were likely to have a much more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the likely consequences of this range of bodily signs and symptoms than women do today.” Freidenfelds said.

Freidenfelds emphasized that anyone, college students included, needs to know about pregnancy and miscarriage because it impacts everyone.

“Most people will have it as part of their lives one way or another. And whether or not people bear children literally through their own bodies, or they have a spouse, a partner, a friend, they support relatives, who they're supporting, no one goes through life without encountering reproduction.” she said.

Corinne Catania, a transfer student into Fine Art Photography, attended the talk for extra credit in her feminist theory class. The talk made her reflect on the universality of women’s issues.

“We all have to learn more about what it is that makes the human condition. I think situations like this are really important to the human condition,” she said. “It all reminds us that we go through these things, positive or negative, conception or miscarriage.”