What the Word "Miscarriage" Gets Wrong

"“Miscarriage” carries a history of failure, misconduct, and mismanagement. Even before it was recorded in the early 1600s as meaning the “spontaneous expulsion of a fetus from the womb before it is viable,” it meant “[a]n instance of misconduct or misbehaviour; a lapse of conduct; a misdemeanour or misdeed”; a “failure; [and] a blunder”; in time it also denoted the “failure of a letter...to reach its destination” ( OED). In the reproductive context, these circulating definitions risk implying that the body has blundered, faultily mis-carrying what it was meant to deliver."

"She argues that the word is structurally ambiguous, referring to the fetus's intrauterine death and/or to the physical process of its preterm delivery. She pulls definitions from Planned Parenthood, Miscarriage Association, Merriam Webster, and other sources to show how some definitions refer to only one part (the death or preterm delivery) while others contain both parts (Bohn). Other definitions are simply vague. Highlighting one aspect but not another makes the language deficient in nuance or “granular[ity],” she argues."

"Coupled with the ambiguous way we define “miscarriage” itself and larger narratives about healing and recovery, this grammar of failure has psychological and emotional implications. Research highlights how people experiencing loss turn to metaphor and metonymy to constitute embodied knowledge when they find their experience being biomedically and narratively foreclosed."

“Miscarriage” has etymological roots tied to misconduct, mismanagement, failure, and blunders. In reproductive use, these meanings can imply that the body or gestational parent has faultily failed to deliver what was intended. The term’s structural ambiguity allows it to refer to intrauterine fetal death and/or the physical process of preterm delivery, while other definitions cover only one aspect or remain vague. This lack of nuance creates a gap between biomedical labeling and lived reality. Clinical settings often emphasize procedures, which can leave emotional support insufficient during a loss experience.

Read at Psychology Today