DESTIGMATISING INFANT LOSS WITH PHOTOGRAPHY AND HASHTAGS ON INSTAGRAM

Abstract

A baby’s new life is often celebrated publicly on social media by sharing ultrasound images and photographs of pregnancy and childbirth. However, not all births go to plan; sometimes, a baby tragically dies, and birth’s social rituals of photographic celebrations cease. While sharing photographs of a deceased baby is rare, numerous examples on the social media platform Instagram reveals that this is slowly changing. Undertaking a search of hashtags associated with infant loss reveals a social movement led by mothers, birth photographers and midwives aiming to destigmatise the death of a baby. These women aim to build death literacy and raise awareness of infant loss by sharing personal stories and photographs of and with their deceased babies. In turn, the hashtags reveal an online community of women who, in supporting each other, understand the critical role of sharing birth and death photographs on social media. This essay explores the complex terrain of visualising infant loss while visually and textually analysing Instagram posts to reveal how and why mothers use photography, alongside captions and hashtags, to express their loss publicly.

Acknowledgements

Cherine Fahd would like to acknowledge Dr Melinda Reid for research assistance and Dr Victoria Rawlings for assistance with the initial ethics application. This article was written in the memory of Bessima, Shai, Lucky, Aksel Jude, Navilena, Matthew, Adley, Burke, and Frankie, and all the babies loved and longed for. Special thank you to all the mothers and photographers who allowed me to share their posts with the research community. And Mathilde, Jules and Nell for teaching me about infant loss.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. See Lacey Barratt on Instagram @laceybarrattphotography and https://laceybarratt.com.au/exposing-you/.

2. See Tweedy, “‘I just wanted to soak in those moments and embrace him forever’: Heart-breaking photographs show a mother giving birth to a stillborn baby boy — and burying him weeks later.” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5522155/Mother-shares-photoshoot-stillbirth-heartbreaking-funeral.html Daily Mail Australia 20 March 2018. Also see The Still Mama Tribe started by Aksel Jude’s mother, Sarah. https://thestillmamatribe.wixsite.com/stillmamatribe both accessed 22 July 2022.

3. For example, my paternal grandmother lost three babies: Norman (1958), Dianne (1962) and Anthony (1964). My grandmother rarely mentioned them. My father said his mother wanted to forget and move on (not that she did not grieve). That her silence reflected her shame, for what was considered back then in Australia, a woman’s failure. There are only three black and white photographs of Dianne prior to her death.

4. See Nicolson and Fleming, Imaging and Imagining the Fetus.

5. While this raises the religious and political issue of ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ which is significant, it is beyond the scope of this article. See Roberts, “The Ultimate Image in the Abortion Debate?” 53–70.

6. Butler, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence, xx It is worth pointing to Judith Butler’s discussion in ‘Toward a Critique of the Right to Life’ in Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? (2016) pp. 15–23. Butler states: ‘it is difficult for those on the Left to think about a discourse of “life” […] perhaps there is a way to retrieve thinking about “life” for the Left, and to make use of this framework of precarious life to sustain a strong feminist position on reproductive freedoms.’ pp. 15–16. She also acknowledges how ‘grievability’ may be usefully deployed to support ‘pro-life’ agendas.

7. Fahd, “Difficult Images: A Family’s Hidden Photographs of Grief and Mourning.”

8. Martel, “Bereavement photographs as family photographs,” 316–17.

9. Fahd, “The Mother Thing in Pictures: From Antagonism to Affection.”

10. Holinger, The Anatomy of Grief, 37.

11. Ibid.

12. See NSW Health Resource. Pregnancy and Infant Loss Parents. https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/kidsfamilies/MCFhealth/Publications/pregnancy-and-infant-loss-parents.pdf Accessed March 9, 2022.

13. Martel, “Bereavement photographs as family photographs,” 310.

14. Godel, “Images of Stillbirth: Memory, Mourning and Memorial,” 253–369.

15. Martel, “Bereavement photographs as family photographs,” 309–26.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid., 311.

18. Gibbs et al., “#Funeral and Instagram: death, social media, and platform vernacular,” 255–68.

19. Bernard and Pakis, Theory of the Hashtag, 4-5.

20. Ibid.

21. I have not focused on miscarriage or pregnancy loss photography. While connected to this study, it is a sizeable area of investigation worthy of a separate study. See Layne. Motherhood Lost: A Feminist Account of Pregnancy Loss in America.

22. Martel, “Bereavement photographs as family photographs.”

23. Human foetuses in the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 6 May 2017, 15:26:49 Author Emőke Dénes https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Human_foetuses_-_1.jpg.

24. Sydenham, “6 months after losing a baby, I fell pregnant. I didn’t expect anger to be something I’d feel.” https://www.mamamia.com.au/birth-after-a-stillborn/MamaMia.com.au 28 May 2022. Accessed 21 July 2022.

25. Layne, “He was a real baby with baby things,” 327.

26. Teigen, “Hi.” https://chrissyteigen.medium.com/hi-2e45e6faf764.

27. Godel, “Images of Stillbirth: Memory, Mourning and Memorial,” 263.

28. Teigen, “Hi.” https://chrissyteigen.medium.com/hi-2e45e6faf764.

29. Ibid.

30. Palmer, “Emotional Archives: Online Photo Sharing and the Cultivation of the Self,” 155–71.

31. Martel, “Bereavement photographs as family photographs,” 321–2.

32. Godel, “Images of Stillbirth: Memory, Mourning and Memorial,” 258–9.

33. See @Laceybarrattphotography https://www.instagram.com/p/BzCAt84AKhQ/ accessed 9 March, 2022.

34. Palmer, “Emotional Archives: Online Photo Sharing and the Cultivation of the Self,” 156.

35. Kingston, “Are we over-sharing lost pregnancies?”.

36. Ellen, “If Chrissy Teigen wants to share the agony of losing her baby, let her”.

37. One Born Every Minute. Accessed March 14, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1fNF6dVfllzdwk-Gk-l-5A.

38. Butler, Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable?, 15.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cherine Fahd

Cherine Fahd is one of Australia’s leading photographic artists. She has exhibited, written, and curated works focusing on photography and video performance for over twenty years. Her artistic projects often incorporate members of the public as well as her immediate family, friends and community. Recent research has concentrated on photographs of the mother from the mother’s viewpoint and grief’s role in the family album. She writes broadly on art and culture and is an Associate Professor of Visual Communication at the University of Technology Sydney in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, Ultimo NSW 2007, Australia. www.cherinefahd.com