Lost: Miscarriage in Nineteenth-Century America

236 Pages·2019·7.464 MB·English

by  Shannon Withycombe

Lost
Critical Issues in Health and Medicine
Edited by Rima D. Apple, University of Wisconsin– Madison,
and Janet Golden, Rutgers University, Camden
Growing criticism of the U.S. health c are system is coming from
consumers, politicians, the media, activists, and health c are profes-
sionals. Critical Issues in Health and Medicine is a collection of
books that explores t hese con temporary dilemmas from a variety
of perspectives, among them po liti cal, l egal, historical, so cio log i cal,
and comparative, and with attention to crucial dimensions such as
race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and culture.
For a list of titles in the series, see the last page of the book.
Lost
•
Miscarriage in
Nineteenth- Century Amer i ca
Shannon Withycombe
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, Camden, and Newark, New Jersey, and London
Names: Withycombe, Shannon, author.
Title: Lost : miscarriage in nineteenth-century America / Shannon Withycombe.
Description: New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, [2018] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017059908| ISBN 9780813591544 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780813591537 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780813591551 (epub) |
ISBN 9780813591575 (pdf)
Subjects: | MESH: Abortion, Spontaneous—history | Abortion,
Spontaneous—psychology | Pregnancy—psychology | Fetal Research—history |
History, 19th Century | United States
Classification: LCC RG648 | NLM WQ 11 AA1 | DDC 618.3/92—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017059908
A British Cataloging- in- Publication rec ord for this book is available
from the British Library.
Copyright © 2019 by Shannon Withycombe
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press,
106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, N.J. 08901. The only exception to this
prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law.
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39 . 48 - 1992.
www . rutgersuniversitypress . org
Manufactured in the United States of Amer i ca
For all the women who have lost

Contents
Introduction 1
1.
Oh Joy, Oh Rapture: Describing the
Nineteenth- Century Miscarriage 13
2.
Enveloped in Mystery: Pregnancy and Miscarriage
in the Late Eigh teenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries 42
3.
Before Its Due Time: Setting Standards
in Miscarriage, 1830–1860s 59
4.
Dr. Taylor Went Up in the Uterus: Miscarriage
Treatment and Intrusive Interventions, 1860–1900 93
5.
The Body in the Clot: Medical Interest in
Miscarried Tissues, 1870–1912 125
Conclusion 162
Acknowl edgments 173
Notes 177
Index 213
vii

Lost