This episode of Let’s Talk About Women’s Health asks whether miscarriage is a feminist issue, and what is at stake when we frame it that way. Our host, Dr Zeynep Gurtin, speaks with medical anthropologist Professor Susie Kilshaw and feminist philosopher Dr Victoria Browne, who reflect on their own routes into studying miscarriage and how their different disciplines help illuminate the subject. Together, they explore why miscarriage has often been marginal within feminist thought, despite its clear links to questions of bodily autonomy, stigma, reproductive politics and gendered expectations.

A key theme of the conversation is the need to move beyond a single dominant narrative of miscarriage as always a straightforward bereavement. While recognising that many people do experience miscarriage as profound loss, Susie and Vic argue that public discourse, clinical care and media representations often leave too little room for the full spectrum of responses, including ambivalence, pragmatism, uncertainty and even relief. The episode examines how celebrity stories, healthcare settings and wider social expectations can shape the way miscarriage is understood and talked about.

The discussion also introduces the Feminist Miscarriage Project, a public engagement initiative led by Susie and Vic, that brings miscarriage into conversation with other pregnancy endings, including abortion and experiences linked to fertility treatment. As part of the project, a new photography exhibition entitled Pregnancy Endings, creates space for multiple representations and experiences, challenging silences and encouraging more honest, inclusive conversations about reproductive lives.

The Pregnancy Endings exhibition will open in London on 28 April 2026 until 4 May 2026. You can find out more about the events and activities connected to The Feminist Miscarriage Project through their Instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/feministmiscarriageproject?igsh=MW5hOTE4Z3Mxa2l5cA%3D%3D

Biographies

Dr Victoria Browne

Victoria Browne is Reader in Political Philosophy at Loughborough University; Co-editor-in-chief of Hypatia: a Journal of Feminist Philosophy; and a longstanding member of the Radical Philosophy editorial collective. Victoria is the author of Pregnancy Without Birth: A Feminist Philosophy of Miscarriage (Bloomsbury 2023) and Feminism, Time and Nonlinear History (Palgrave 2014); and co-editor of Vulnerability and the Politics of Care (OUP 2021) and Motherhood in Literature and Culture: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Europe (Routledge 2017). Recent journal articles include ‘“Every Miscarriage is a Work Accident”: Theorising Miscarriage Through a Labour Lens’ (2025); ‘How to Defeat Miscarriage Stigma: From “Breaking the Silence” to Reproductive Justice’ (2024); and ‘A Pregnant Pause: Pregnancy, Miscarriage and Suspended Time’ (2022). Victoria is Project Lead of the AHRC-funded Feminist Miscarriage Project, which aims to connect academics with activists, advocates, clinicians, artists and writers, to promote reproductive justice and freedom for all.

Professor Susie Kilshaw

Susie Kilshaw is Professor of Medical Anthropology at University College London. Susie is the author of Pregnancy and Miscarriage in Qatar: Women, Reproduction and the State (Bloomsbury 2020); and co-editor of Navigating Miscarriage: Social, Medical, and Conceptual Perspectives (Berghann 2020). Recent journal articles include 'From Clinic to Grave: Women's experiences of 'pregnancy remains' disposal following early miscarriage in England, UK' (2006), Fluctuations and remaining bonds: Challenging undynamic foetal personhood through women's experiences of early pregnancy endings in England (2006), ‘“Now I’m a weird mother who doesn’t care”: Women’s experiences of pregnancy remains disposal following miscarriage in England’ (2024); and ‘Further Hierarchies of Loss: Tracking Relationality in Pregnancy Loss Experiences’ (2023). She also served as Deputy Editor of the journal Anthropology and Medicine for over ten years and remains on the editorial board. Susie is co-lead of The Feminist Miscarriage Project.

Further Links

• UCL EGA Institute for Women’s Health Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/population-health-sciences/womens-health Follow UCL EGA Institute for Women’s Health: https://linktr.ee/uclifwh The Feminist Miscarriage Project: https://feministmiscarriageproject.org
• The Feminist Miscarriage Project Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feministmiscarriageproject
• Pregnancy Endings Exhibition: https://feministmiscarriageproject.org/exhibition Sands Charity: https://www.sands.org.uk
• The Miscarriage Association Charity: https://www.miscarriageassociation.org.uk

For this special International Women’s Day 2026 edition (Healthy Lives for Healthy Women), host Dr Zeynep Gurtin is joined by the Institute’s Director, Professor Anna David, and Professor Joyce Harper, to launch a new series exploring timely, controversial, and important questions in women’s health, bringing together clinical, scientific, and social science perspectives. 

Together they reflect on UCL’s bicentenary and its long legacy in women’s health and women’s education, before moving into what the Institute looks like today: a life course approach that connects adolescence, reproductive years, preconception health, pregnancy, menopause, and healthy ageing. 

The conversation ranges from how teaching and diagnostics have transformed (from early genetic testing advances to today’s rapid microarray and sequencing) to the real-world challenges facing patients and clinicians, including medical misogyny, compassion fatigue, time-pressured care, and the “Wild West” of health misinformation online. Now more than ever we need to understand the importance of evidence-based guidance (and where to find it), the harms of unproven products and “quick fixes” (from menopause supplements to IVF add-ons), and the need to support healthier lives through practical pillars of health and happiness. 

The episode closes with a discussion of shared responsibility in contraception (including the case for male contraceptive options) and two personal health tips: find movement you enjoy (even learning how to run properly) and get “in tune” with your own body by tracking how lifestyle affects you. 

Further Links UCL EGA Institute for Women's Health Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/population-health-sciences/womens-health 

Follow UCL EGA Institute for Women's Health: https://linktr.ee/uclifwh Dr Zeynep Gurtin UCL 
Profile: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/67708-zeynep-gurtin Professor Anna David UCL 
Profile: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/10917-anna-david Professor Joyce Harper 
Website: https://joyceharper.com 
Professor Joyce Harper Instagram: @ProfJoyceHarper 
Podcast about Elizabeth Garrett Anderson - https://joyceharper.com/project/episode-9-dr-lucy-havard-elizabeth-garrett-anderson-the-first-female-doctor/