Hanasono presents 'Shattering the Silence on Miscarriage and Pregnancy Loss'

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. There has been a groundswell of women speaking publicly about their experience with miscarriage. From Carrie Underwood and Beyoncé to Gabrielle Union and Priscilla Chan, high-profile women are increasingly and very publicly sharing their stories of pregnancy loss.

This has not always been the case, however. American conversations tend to steer clear of pregnancy loss, treating it as a taboo subject. 

On Thursday (Oct. 25), Dr. Lisa Hanasono, associate professor of communication  and an Institute for the Study of Culture and Society fellow at Bowling Green State University, will present a public lecture from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in 207 Bowen-Thompson Student Union. She will speak about her research into the patterns of communication surrounding pregnancy loss and how to shatter the silence and end the stigma. Through her own experience with pregnancy loss, she was driven to investigate why so many women who had been affected by pregnancy loss were suffering in silence and what can be done to shift social narratives around the subject. 

The silence surrounding pregnancy loss causes women, their partners and family to feel further isolated in grief and shame. And yet, miscarriage is not rare. According to the American Pregnancy Association, one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage, making this a crisis affecting millions of women, hidden in plain sight.  

“By shattering the silence, we create a communicative space for people to share their stories and support each other—instead of silently coping alone,” Hanasono said. 

She spent months interviewing dozens of women who experienced pregnancy loss, analyzing the language in pregnancy literature (such as the classic text “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”) revolving around pregnancy loss, and studying how popular culture presents this experience. In many of these cases, there is little to no mention of pregnancy loss, and if there is, it is very brief and relies on common tropes and clichés, which further silences and stigmatizes these women. She believes there needs to be a sea change in the way Americans think of the communication revolving around miscarriage. Hanasono would like to see the media, medical fields and communities pay more attention to the emotional, physical and psychological effects of pregnancy loss. 

Hanasono’s lecture is part of the ICS Faculty Fellowship program. ICS is an organization that helps BGSU professors take a full semester away from teaching and service obligations to research an interdisciplinary topic and present their findings to the public. Fellows’ research must be of significant national or international importance with wide relevance. Prior fellows have studied the First Amendment rights of Ohio K-12 students, the modern representation of female athletes and other interdisciplinary topics. 

The institute is an interdisciplinary, public humanities center founded at BGSU in 1996. ICS helps faculty to develop, communicate and disseminate their scholarly and creative work to constituencies across campus and throughout the region. With its public events and outreach efforts, ICS brings issues of vital national and global importance to northwest Ohio, and, in turn, brings community knowledge back into the University. For more information, follow ICS on Twitter or visit bgsu.edu/ics.