(In)visibilising pregnancy loss in Southern Malawi

Abstract

Miscarriages, stillbirths and neonatal deaths have received limited attention in global health programmes and research, even though pregnancy loss is common, traumatic and stigmatised. This paper seeks to illuminate lived experiences of pregnancy loss in southern Malawi, drawing on findings from semi-structured interviews and focus groups with women who have experienced loss, health professionals and community members, and observations of maternity care. Combining thematic and discourse analysis, we show how societal and medical discourses frame women as responsible for (failed) reproduction, and restrict possibilities to speak about, and respond to, loss. Some accounts and (care) practices invisibilise loss and associated suffering. However, invisibilisation may also be intended as support, and underscores rather than denies the social significance of parenthood. Other accounts (e.g. women emphasising faith and acceptance) constitute moral survival strategies to avoid the acquisition of a ‘spoiled identity’. We conclude that societal and medical discourses of loss enact stigmatised, subaltern subject positions for women experiencing pregnancy loss, create social suffering, and amount to a form of structural violence. Programmes and interventions should change these discourses.