Overview

The Feminist Miscarriage Project is a new collaboration led by two feminist academics, Victoria Browne and Susie Kilshaw, funded by a Curiosity Award from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. The Project will run for two years (July 2025 - June 2027), connecting academics with activists, advocates, clinicians, artists and writers.

Since Victoria and Susie began researching this subject over a decade ago, miscarriage has received more attention in academic and public spaces than ever before. But the experiences of the most marginalised groups, who face the highest miscarriage rates, remain sidelined. We’re also finding that miscarriage still gets separated from other pregnancy endings like abortion, despite significant overlaps, and that the wide variety in miscarriage experiences is not sufficiently recognised. The increasingly dominant bereavement frame does provide appropriate affirmation for many people, but can be alienating for those who don’t experience their miscarriages this way.

The FMP is therefore making an intervention with 3 key aims:

1. To promote intersectional research into how social inequalities affect miscarriage experiences and care structures.

2. To advance a ‘full-spectrum’ approach that connects miscarriage with other pregnancy endings including abortion.

3. To explore the multiple ways that people conceptualise and feel about miscarriage, making space for ambiguity and ambivalence.

The project will be guided by the values of the wider Reproductive Justice movement, which strives for maximal inclusivity, puts bodily autonomy at the centre, and connects reproductive rights and freedoms with broader social justice concerns. Our core principle is that pregnant people of all identities and backgrounds, and pregnancy endings of all kinds, need quality care and respect.