Up to a quarter of pregnancies end in miscarriage. It can happen for any reason, to anyone. So why don’t we ever talk about it? Here are four illustrated histories of women who have had miscarriages.
Ryan Alexander-Tanner is an educator and comics artist based out of Portland, Or. His work is focused on adapting unconventional narratives into comics to reach new audiences. www.ohyesverynice.com
This piece was originally published on The Nib.
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That is probably the most moving cartoon I’ve ever read.
What do the forced birth advocates have to say about stories like this?
Can you imagine one of these women having to run the gauntlet outside many (most? all?) clinics in addition to the pain they’re already experiencing?
Well done.
This is very well done. My wife and I were married when we were about 40, and she miscarried her first pregnancy. We were actually giving a party when she realized something was wrong. We ran her to the doctor, who said “I think you may be miscarrying this pregnancy.”
I hadn’t ever considered a miscarriage. I didn’t know what to think. But the (female) doctor told us about how common these things are, why they happen, etc. And then I was cool with it. I told my wife that I felt her body wasn’t ready to carry the pregnancy to term, and miscarried, basically, in order to protect her. Her body was reacting appropriately to the situation. My level-headed attitude helped her a lot.
We wound up getting pregnant not long after that, and had our son.
The first thing people ought to know about miscarriages is how common they are. The second thing is not to blame yourself for it.
My daughter lost her second pregnancy at 36 after months of trying to get pregnant. Although the fetus died around 9 weeks, it didn’t abort on it’s own. She had a dilation and evacuation at 12 weeks to deal with that. Technically, that’s an abortion. I cringe when I see legislators in various states that would force her to go before a court to “prove” that she didn’t intentionally kill the fetus, and get their blessing to remove it - before it became septic and killed her too.
Did you know that even with the fetus dead the body still thinks it’s pregnant? My daughter continued to have severe morning sickness for the 3 weeks the fetus was dead until her D & E.
Very well done. I had a miscarriage at the ripe old age of 47, when I thought I was all done. It was upsetting, but after having tried to get pregnant early in my 40s, I understood that most miscarriages occur because the contributing egg or sperm have defects that are incompatible with life, especially if you are a woman in your 40s! There may be physiologic reasons for repeat miscarriage in younger women, but these are certainly not a woman’s fault either.
The comic itself is very important and moving, but bear in mind: a large number of anti-abortion laws being pushed by the GOP across the country right now would subject every woman interviewed here to a criminal investigation to determine if her miscarriage should be declared a homicide. That, on top of everything the women here describe going through. Horrifying.