Pregnancy Without Birth: A Feminist Philosophy of Miscarriage

Miscarriage is often seen as a failure or a waste of time, but Victoria Browne's book Pregnancy Without Birth argues that it deepens and expands our understanding of pregnancy. It explores common themes within personal accounts of miscarriage and criticizes teleological discourses and disciplinary ideologies that elevate birth as the natural and normal endpoint. The book politicizes miscarriage as a feminist issue and articulates an alternative intercorporeal philosophy of pregnancy that embraces variation, invites us to sit with ambiguity, contingency, and suspension, and enables us to see subjective agency in all pregnancies. This results in a relational feminist politics of full-spectrum solidarity, social justice, and care that breaks down presumed oppositions between pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, stillbirth, and live birth and liberates pregnancy from reproductive futurism.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 232 pages
Publication date: 06 October 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

The popular imagination often associates pregnancy solely with birth and babies, leading to a perception that a miscarriage represents a failure or a waste of time. However, in her compelling book, Victoria Browne challenges this notion by arguing that reflection on miscarriage can deepen and expand our understanding of pregnancy. Browne explores common themes within personal accounts of miscarriage, such as feelings of failure, self-blame, and being "stuck in limbo," and critically interrogates teleological discourses and disciplinary ideologies that elevate birth as the ultimate endpoint of pregnancy. Pregnancy Without Birth also politicizes miscarriage as a feminist issue, advocating for a relational feminist politics of full-spectrum solidarity, social justice, and care. This approach breaks down presumed oppositions between pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, stillbirth, and live birth, and liberates pregnancy from reproductive futurism. By embracing variation, inviting ambiguity, contingency, and suspension, and recognizing subjective agency in all pregnancies, regardless of the biological, political, and social forces that shape them, Pregnancy Without Birth offers an alternative intercorporeal philosophy of pregnancy that promotes a more holistic and inclusive understanding of this complex life process.

Weight: 304g
Dimension: 138 x 216 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350279698