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maritelissabeth's review
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
aimiller's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
This was a really beautiful and moving collection, though also obviously emotionally difficult and sometimes intense. The diversity of experiences--not just racial, obviously, but also feelings about the miscarriage and infant loss--I think also contributed to the power of the collection. It's clearly not the same story over and over.
It's also obviously an insight into the gap between medical knowledge and information and the way that people process their miscarriages. I think it could be really instructive for medical providers to read this and see the way that their reactions are perceived by patients, and understand how that's taken (in addition to the way that racism clearly impacts how patients of color, especially women of color and Native women, are treated by medical providers.)
It's also obviously an insight into the gap between medical knowledge and information and the way that people process their miscarriages. I think it could be really instructive for medical providers to read this and see the way that their reactions are perceived by patients, and understand how that's taken (in addition to the way that racism clearly impacts how patients of color, especially women of color and Native women, are treated by medical providers.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage
samanthaisonline's review
5.0
What God Is Honored Here? is a moving and meaningful book about miscarriage and infant loss written by Native women and women of color.
Each "chapter" is written by a woman who has loved and lost. The book is hard to read, though not because of bad writing. The losses are hard to digest, poignant and painful.
But they are things that need to be said. About doctors who brush off the experiences of women of color or miscarriages that hurt even though friends and family may think it doesn't matter, that the baby wasn't far enough along to count or be wanted.
I don't really have a way to finish this review, so I'm just going to end on a quote.
"It's not easy being the mother of a dead child. In fact, it may be the hardest kind of mothering there is" - Rona Fernandez
(Side note, two years later: I really don't know why I, as a 16 year old white girl, read this book. But I'm glad I did.)
(Thanks to NetGalley for providing a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.)
Each "chapter" is written by a woman who has loved and lost. The book is hard to read, though not because of bad writing. The losses are hard to digest, poignant and painful.
But they are things that need to be said. About doctors who brush off the experiences of women of color or miscarriages that hurt even though friends and family may think it doesn't matter, that the baby wasn't far enough along to count or be wanted.
I don't really have a way to finish this review, so I'm just going to end on a quote.
"It's not easy being the mother of a dead child. In fact, it may be the hardest kind of mothering there is" - Rona Fernandez
(Side note, two years later: I really don't know why I, as a 16 year old white girl, read this book. But I'm glad I did.)
(Thanks to NetGalley for providing a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.)
suzyreadsbooks's review
5.0
4.5 stars
What God is Honored Here? is an anthology of 20+ essays and poems about miscarriage and infant loss, written by women of color and Native American women. Editors Shannon Gibney and Kao Kalia Yang aimed to collect and highlight the experiences of grieving indigenous mothers and mothers of color, whose stories have previously been misrepresented or missing entirely from societal narratives. I appreciated the wide variety of voices in this book, including women of many different ethnicities and religious backgrounds. Miscarriage and infant loss is an incredibly somber topic, and I could feel how hard it was for some of these women to talk about their experiences. Hearing so many similar stories back-to-back made this book more emotionally challenging, but it also highlighted each author’s unique perspectives, including differences in support systems, approaches towards grief and guilt, and methods of honoring their children. Some essays felt like they ended quite suddenly, mirroring the authors’ pregnancy stories. Other essays include future pregnancies and live births.
The infant and maternal mortality rates in America are extremely high, especially for women of color. One continuous theme throughout the book is the dismissive attitudes of healthcare providers, often causing these women to become more dangerously ill than they would have been if they had been appropriately treated at the time of their initial concerns.
There were many nuances within these narratives. In Binding Signs, Dania Rajendra talks about the confusion of being pro-choice while mourning a miscarriage and fallopian tube removal. I really loved her passage about the internal conflict of believing that embryos are not people, yet missing the people those embryos never became. Elsa Valmidiano talked about her experiences volunteering in the Philippines with an organization that medically assisted women who attempted self-induced abortions, and the different types of stigma and shame of abortion versus medically-induced miscarriage.
This book is a necessary step in narrowing the gap in the societal narrative around miscarriage and infant loss. What a gift to contribute during National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. The only downside of this book is that, as far as I can recall, this collection only included cis women in heterosexual relationships. I would have liked to see some representation from the LGBTQ+ community, as miscarriages and infant loss can happen to individuals in many different types of relationships using a variety of assisted reproductive technologies.
Thank you, University of Minnesota Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
What God is Honored Here? is an anthology of 20+ essays and poems about miscarriage and infant loss, written by women of color and Native American women. Editors Shannon Gibney and Kao Kalia Yang aimed to collect and highlight the experiences of grieving indigenous mothers and mothers of color, whose stories have previously been misrepresented or missing entirely from societal narratives. I appreciated the wide variety of voices in this book, including women of many different ethnicities and religious backgrounds. Miscarriage and infant loss is an incredibly somber topic, and I could feel how hard it was for some of these women to talk about their experiences. Hearing so many similar stories back-to-back made this book more emotionally challenging, but it also highlighted each author’s unique perspectives, including differences in support systems, approaches towards grief and guilt, and methods of honoring their children. Some essays felt like they ended quite suddenly, mirroring the authors’ pregnancy stories. Other essays include future pregnancies and live births.
The infant and maternal mortality rates in America are extremely high, especially for women of color. One continuous theme throughout the book is the dismissive attitudes of healthcare providers, often causing these women to become more dangerously ill than they would have been if they had been appropriately treated at the time of their initial concerns.
There were many nuances within these narratives. In Binding Signs, Dania Rajendra talks about the confusion of being pro-choice while mourning a miscarriage and fallopian tube removal. I really loved her passage about the internal conflict of believing that embryos are not people, yet missing the people those embryos never became. Elsa Valmidiano talked about her experiences volunteering in the Philippines with an organization that medically assisted women who attempted self-induced abortions, and the different types of stigma and shame of abortion versus medically-induced miscarriage.
This book is a necessary step in narrowing the gap in the societal narrative around miscarriage and infant loss. What a gift to contribute during National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. The only downside of this book is that, as far as I can recall, this collection only included cis women in heterosexual relationships. I would have liked to see some representation from the LGBTQ+ community, as miscarriages and infant loss can happen to individuals in many different types of relationships using a variety of assisted reproductive technologies.
Thank you, University of Minnesota Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
xtinamariet's review
4.0
Like any compilation, some stories are more engaging than others. But on the whole, heartbreaking, tender and honest.
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