“Come On, We’ll Look at It Now”: Professionals’ Work on Fetal Viewability Following Spontaneous and Induced Loss

For a long time in German and Austrian clinical settings the normative script after pregnancy loss was to immediately remove fetal bodies and remains and hide them from the formerly pregnant women. Nowadays, based on an understanding of spontaneous or induced fetal loss as parents losing their child, the professionals involved encourage affected parties to view and even hold the fetus/child. Our central argument is that these professionals work on fetal viewability and on enabling “parents” to look at the fetus/child to complete a “rite of passage” out of liminality and toward parenthood. To develop this argument, we examine the norms and practices of midwives and undertakers – two central professional groups responsible for facilitating this passage – who care for the fetal body after delivery in the clinic until its final farewell. The article is based on two separate research projects: Veronika’s anthropological study on second- and third-trimester disability-selective pregnancy termination in Austria and Julia’s sociological study on discursive practices around pregnancy loss in Germany. In the conclusion, we critically discuss potential repercussions of the disambiguating normative script for “parents” to view the fetus/child after loss that prevails among professionals.