'It's a really empty feeling': women's experiences of miscarriage and pregnancy loss in late twentieth-century Ireland

This article explores women's experiences of miscarriage and pregnancy loss in late twentieth-century Ireland. Drawing on oral history interviews, newspaper and magazine articles, the newsletters of the Miscarriage Association of Ireland, and women's memoirs, it demonstrates how understandings and experiences of miscarriage and pregnancy loss in late twentieth-century Ireland were considerably shaped by Ireland's wider sociocultural context. As with many other aspects of reproductive health, miscarriage and pregnancy loss were shrouded in silence, while women faced a range of feelings around their losses. I use the lens of obstetric violence to frame women's experiences of pregnancy loss in medical settings. I argue that with the advent of the Pro-Life Amendment Campaign in 1981, and subsequent referendum on the right to life of the unborn child and introduction of the Eighth Amendment of the Irish constitution in 1983, understandings of miscarriage shifted considerably with increased value placed on foetocentric personhood. This meant that foetocentric grief became the normative response. With the emergence of the Miscarriage Association of Ireland in 1988, storytelling became an important tool in raising awareness of pregnancy loss and supporting women. Medical professionals and hospitals began to engage in more compassionate practices, yet inadequacies in care persisted.