hard to bear:

Investigating the science and silence of miscarriage


hard to bear

by Isabelle Oderberg

Every five minutes, someone in Australia experiences a miscarriage. Hard to Bear combines personal stories, with in-depth investigative journalism to help us understand how the system is letting down anyone affected, and what we can do to change it. It’s more than a book for people who experience miscarriage and their friends and family. It’s for doctors, allied health professioinals and any who has an interest in feminism, medical misogyny, health policy, abortion and so much more. This is an empowering call to arms that will make you laugh, cry and wonder how there was so much about women’s health that you didn’t understand.

“Oderberg writes with fury and empathy while never losing her clear journalistic eye. The book covers everything from the language we use to talk about miscarriage to IVF, chapters on how pollution and climate change intersect with pregnancy loss, and even one on First Nations perspectives on miscarriages, written with Arrernte midwife Cherisse Buzzacott.”

— The Guardian Australia

“This comprehensive work helps to dispel such myths by shining a light on the many forms of miscarriage, how they are experienced and treated, the trauma that can ensue, how different cultures view pregnancy loss, the role played by exposure to certain chemicals and the toll of multiple miscarriages. Written with frankness and flashes of dark humour, Oderberg’s own story dramatically illustrates this ordeal.”

— The Age and Sydney Morning Herald

“Hard to Bear is a furious, insistent and tender work.”

— Felicity Plunkett, The Saturday Paper

“Hard to Bear is essential reading for anyone interested in the intersection of systemic inequality, empirical evidence and lived experience.”

— Nanci Nott, Artshub

“Hard to Bear empowers, educates, and entertains, and offers countless valuable insights that will help us provide better care.”

— Dr Kristine Barnden FRANZCOG, DDU, O&G Magazine by the Royal Australia New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gyneacologists

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About Isy

After growing up in Hong Kong, Isabelle Oderberg went to university in Melbourne. She has worked as a journalist for two decades in newswires across Europe, Asia and Australia, where she was the country’s first social media editor for Melbourne’s Herald Sun. Her work has appeared in The Age/SMH, Guardian, ABC, Meanjin and elsewhere. She also works as a media and communications strategist across the not-for-profit sector. She is a mother to two living children and seven angel babies.

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