Reproductive Loss in the Age of Neoliberalism
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Authors
Schubert, Shannon
Issue Date
2024-04-22
Type
Capstone
Language
en
Keywords
neoliberalism , pregnancy loss , reproductive loss , reproductive trauma
Alternative Title
Abstract
Reproductive loss (RL) is common; in Canada 15.7% of couples experience infertility, 15-25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, 8.1 of 1000 total births end in stillbirth, and 5.4 of 1000 live births end in post-natal (infant) death in the first year (Canada, 2020). Despite its frequency and increasing public visibility, RL remains a complex experience that can include feelings of sadness, grief, guilt, shame, and stress and can lead to more serious mental health complications such as post traumatic stress disorder and prolonged grief disorder. Neoliberalism, as a political philosophy valuing freedom, equal opportunity, and resistance to socialism, constructs ideological conditions that complicate the RL experience. These conditions include pronatalism, meritocracy, and essentialism. I review several forms popular discourse relevant to these conditions and the experience of RL including celebrity news articles about RL, Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, and the post Roe v. Wade debate over fetal life. Using primarily feminist and
social constructionist research, I examine how current popular social discourse reinforces neoliberal ideologies that complicate the RL experience. I review several established and emerging counselling approaches and consider how well they address this contemporary neoliberal socio-political-cultural context of RL. I conclude with recommendations for counselling practice, including recognizing RL as potential trauma, assessing for coping and despair, assessing for discrimination, deconstructing neoliberal ideologies, and constructing meaning and agency within loss.
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Citation
Publisher
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
openAccess
openAccess