Metaphors in communication about pregnancy loss

Jeannette Littlemore, Sarah Turner

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Abstract

Pregnancy loss, encompassing miscarriage, stillbirth and termination for foetal abnormality, can be considered a particularly intense and unique form of bereavement, which engenders difficult or painful emotions. When people are talking about such emotions, they have been found to make extensive use of metaphor (Semino, 2011). In this paper, we use metaphor analysis of a small corpus of interviews with individuals in England who have suffered such losses, and people who support them, to explore the nature of the bereavement. In particular, we focus on the ways in which metaphor is used to describe the experience of the loss, the effects that this loss has on people's conceptions of themselves and their bodies, and the implications this has for recovery. We identify a number of characteristics that can lead the bereaved to conceptualise their realities in different ways, which have implications for the grieving process, the ways in which people respond to their grief, and ultimately their recovery.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)45-75
Number of pages31
JournalMetaphor and the Social World
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We would like to thank the Economic and Social Research Council for funding this research, and our project partners (The Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Charity, the Miscarriage Association, Antenatal Results and Choices and the Human Tissue Authority) for their invaluable sup- port. We are also grateful to our co-researchers on the ‘Death before Birth’ project, Professor Danielle Fuller, Dr Sheelagh McGuinness, Dr Karolina Kuberska Research Associate and Meera Burgess for their contribution to this research and for the many rewarding, insightful and interdisciplinary discussions that we have had about this topic. We are also grateful to our Research Assistant, Patrick Dandy, who helped with the data processing and with the formatting of this paper. Finally, and most importantly, we are indebted to all our participants, without whom this study would not have been possible. We would also like to acknowledge Danny, the son of one of our participants.

Keywords

  • metaphor
  • pregnancy loss
  • bereavement
  • emotion
  • the body
  • Bereavement
  • The body
  • Emotion
  • Metaphor
  • Pregnancy loss

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

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