How to defeat miscarriage stigma

From 'breaking the silence' to Reproductive Justice

Bibliographic Data

ID4367197
AuthorsVivienne Browne (0000-0001-8932-5693, Loughborough University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume26
Issue1
Pages203-223
Publication date2025-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-7001 • E-ISSN: 1741-2773
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/14647001241266173
OpenAlexW4401034366
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited48

Public discussions of miscarriage in the UK frequently describe it as a stigmatised phenomenon that is 'shrouded in silence'. And in turn, 'breaking the silence' is presented as the means of defeating the stigma. In this article, however, I argue that it is time to abandon the 'breaking the silence' frame. This is not only because it overstates the public silence it condemns, but also because it is rooted in an inadequate understanding of stigma, which keeps us stuck in a cycle of talking more, rather than doing more, about miscarriage, and failing to connect miscarriage as a feminist issue with wider struggles for social justice. Drawing on critical sociologies of stigma developed by Imogen Tyler and others, I propose a paradigm shift: from a narrow liberal understanding of miscarriage stigma as a problem of social norms that can be alleviated through 'breaking the silence' and 'awareness raising', to a critical 'stigma power' approach which understands miscarriage stigma as a 'machinery of inequality' that fulfils a core function for patriarchal, racialised, neoliberal capitalist power structures, and hence requires transformative socioeconomic solutions. To this end, I call for a new research and activism agenda that fully incorporates miscarriage within the wider movement for Reproductive Justice

Aesthetics · Criminology · Economic Justice · Miscarriage · Political science · Pregnancy · Silence · Sociology · Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Issues · Gender Studies · Intimate Partner and Family Violence · Law · Psychology · Reproductive Health and Contraception