Suffering in silence: Experiences of emptiness and exclusion after reproductive loss in Romania - Erica van der Sijpt

“I haven’t held you in my arms, but I feel you. I haven’t talked with you, but I hear you. I haven’t met you, but I love you. Your absence is like the sky: present everywhere.” In Romania, women who unexpectedly lose a fetus or newborn baby with whom they had imagined a life-long bond often experience deeply-felt emptiness and loneliness. Their experience is made worse by the silence and misrecognition they encounter in their social surroundings. This article describes women’s painful interactions with the medical system, the Orthodox Church and the people in their personal networks. It shows not only how their little ones are excluded as worthy members of Romanian society, but also how they themselves hardly get any social space or recognition as bereaved mothers. While some may benefit from the occasional civil society initiative, many just suffer in silence.Illustration by Axelle van Wynsberghehttps://theanthro.art/sufferin....g-in-silence-experie