From Women's Expectations to Scientific Specimens: The Fate of Miscarriage Materials in Nineteenth-Century America

This article explores physicians' and women's descriptions of miscarriage in late-nineteenth-century America. As the science of human embryology developed, doctors in the USA began seeking out miscarriage cases in order to access fetal and embryonic tissues, spurring increased medical interest in pregnancy. But women played a key role in this new medical and scientific world as well. Facing increasing restrictions upon their control over fertility, many American women understood miscarriage to be a relief, or even a joy. These positive reactions aided the medical acquisition of the newly valued specimens. Women and their doctors together shaped early embryology by deciding the identity and fate of the materials expelled during miscarriage. This investigation of women's personal writings about miscarriage also expands our understandings of the links between motherhood and femininity in nineteenth-century America.