Contents

Authors’ Note on Word Choice

Introduction

Part I: How We Got Here

Chapter One: There Are No Words: The Inadequacy of the Language for Pregnancy Loss

Chapter Two: How to Make an American Baby: The Modern Resonance of Reproduction in Earlier Eras

Chapter Three: Hey, We Might Actually Survive This: Medical and Social Advances in Pregnancy

Chapter Four: Modern Miscarriage: How Birth Control, “Choice,” and Home Pregnancy Tests Transformed Pregnancy Loss

Chapter Five: The Puppetry of the Fetus: How Images of the Unborn Redefined Abortion and Miscarriage

Part II: Sick Mothers

Chapter Six: Medical Mystery: Scientific Uncertainty That Comes from Ignoring the Right Questions

Chapter Seven: Nothing about This Is Simple: Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Other Complications

Chapter Eight: Sick and Dying: How Discrimination Creates Circumstances for Pregnancy Loss

Part III: The Legal Morass

Chapter Nine: How Birthing Bodies Are Regulated: The Laws That Increasingly Govern Pregnancy

Chapter Ten: Politicians, Restrictions, and Laws, Oh My!: The Mess When We Mix Politics and Medicine

Chapter Eleven: When Pregnancy Loss Is a Crime: The Legal Peril around the Loss of a Baby

Chapter Twelve: Life and Death Certificates: How a Piece of Paper Came to Define Loss

Part IV: The Making of Meaning

Chapter Thirteen: The Stories We Tell: Myths and Narratives around Pregnancy and Loss

Chapter Fourteen: Talismans: The Growing Market for Objects That Commemorate Loss

Chapter Fifteen: Mourning Rituals: Muddling through a Way to Grieve

Afterword

Acknowledgments

Appendix: Did You Seriously Just Say That to Me?

Recommended Media

Notes

Index

About the Authors