ArticleMedical humanities2013
'Miscarriage or abortion?' Understanding the medical language of pregnancy loss in Britain; a historical perspective.
Article in Medical humanities, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Prophylactic antibiotics for uterine evacuation procedures to manage miscarriage.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Acceptable Nomenclature for Pregnancy Loss Care: A Cross-Sectional Observational Survey.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2026Observational
- Unveiling the effects of micro and nano plastics in embryonic development.Toxicology reports · 2025Review
- Women's physical health around live births and pregnancy losses: a longitudinal study.European journal of public health · 2025Article
- The employment of art therapy to develop empathy and foster wellbeing for junior doctors in a palliative medicine rotation - a qualitative exploratory study on acceptability.BMC palliative care · 2024Article
- Bridging the gap between pregnancy loss research and policy and practice: insights from a qualitative survey with knowledge users.Health research policy and systems · 2024Article
- Job loss during pregnancy and the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2023Article
- Termination of pregnancy data completeness and feasibility in population-based surveys: EN-INDEPTH study.Population health metrics · 2021Article
- The risk of cardiovascular disease in women after miscarriage, stillbirth, and therapeutic abortion: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.Systematic reviews · 2020Article
- Parents' experiences of care following the loss of a baby at the margins between miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal death: a UK qualitative study.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2020Article
- The Language of First-Trimester Nonviable Pregnancy: Patient-Reported Preferences and Clarity.Obstetrics and gynecology · 2019Article
- Maternal, fetal, and neonatal outcomes associated with measles during pregnancy: Namibia, 2009-2010.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2014Article
- Intermittently scanned continuous glucose monitoring is associated with lower spontaneous abortion rate compared with conventional blood glucose monitoring in pregnant women with type 1 diabetes: An observational study.Diabetes & vascular disease researchObservational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Clinical language applied to early pregnancy loss changed in late twentieth century Britain when doctors consciously began using the term 'miscarriage' instead of 'abortion' to refer to this subject. Medical professionals at the time and since have claimed this change as an intuitive empathic response to women's experiences. However, a reading of medical journals and textbooks from the era reveals how the change in clinical language reflected legal, technological, professional and social developments. The shift in language is better understood in the context of these historical developments, rather than as the consequence of more empathic medical care for women who experience miscarriage.
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Registered trials
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