Metaphor analysis as a route to understanding and validating experiences of pregnancy loss in England and in France
Pregnancy loss can provoke a profound and complex form of grief, marked by sudden, unexpected loss and a lack of societal frameworks to help navigate the experience. As the bereaved often lack memories of the lost child, grieving is further complicated. Metaphors play a key role in expressing diffic...
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| Vydáno v: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/cognitextes, |
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| Hlavní autoři: | , , |
| Médium: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jazyk: | Anglais |
| Vydáno: |
CogniTextes
2026
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| Témata: | |
| On-line přístup: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Shrnutí: | Pregnancy loss can provoke a profound and complex form of grief, marked by sudden, unexpected loss and a lack of societal frameworks to help navigate the experience. As the bereaved often lack memories of the lost child, grieving is further complicated. Metaphors play a key role in expressing difficult emotions, as they help individuals make sense of their experiences. Studies have shown that people use more metaphors when describing personal emotional experiences, especially those not widely shared, such as pregnancy loss. The Death before Birth project (2016-2018) studied how women in England used metaphors to describe their experience of pregnancy loss. Metaphors involving journeys, containers, and division were prevalent, reflecting the isolating nature of the grief. The embodied aspect of the loss was significant, as the grief was often felt physically. Participants also experienced a shift in their relationship with their bodies, with some blaming them for the loss. Accepting the ongoing nature of grief while integrating it into their lives was a major step in recovery. Building on this work, the study is now being extended to France in the PERINAT project, which also includes fathers’ experiences. This paper is the first of several papers in which we compare and contrast the findings from the two projects, allowing us to better understand the experiences of English and French parents who have experienced pregnancy loss. In this first paper we focus on the strong parallels between the two sets of interviews. We discuss these parallels in depth and explore what they reveal about the experience of pregnancy loss in the two countries. |
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