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The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

Ectopic "Miscarriage", Ctd

By The Daily Dish
Jun 6 2009, 7:35 AM ET

A reader writes:

I am a registered nurse, with 11 years of work experience in OB/GYN, so I know first-hand how women deal with both elective and spontaneous abortions. Your readers are absolutely correct in stating that an ectopic pregnancy cannot come to term, but with one exception. There have been a few rare cases documented of abdominal pregnancies, where the embryo attaches to the outside of the uterus, or to part of the intestines. This is obviously a high-risk situation, and rarely results in a live infant. Most ectopic pregnancies implant in fallopian tubes, which rupture with the growth of the embryo, resulting in death to embryo, and risk of hemorrhagic death to mother.
 
That said, your reader, who commented on the existence of only one song about miscarriage, is incorrect. This reader is obviously unfamiliar with the work of Tori Amos, who has devoted a sizeable amount of songwriting to sexual issues, including rape and miscarriage. From her Wikipedia page:



Following Amos and Hawley's marriage on February 22, 1998, Atlantic released From the Choirgirl Hotel, in May 1998. The underlying theme of the album deals with her miscarriages, interspersed with elements of her marriage and other personal events. The lyrics "She's convinced she could hold back a glacier, but she couldn't keep baby alive/doubting if there's a woman in there somewhere" from the album's lead single, "Spark", and "Then the baby came before I found/the magic how to keep her happy" from the song "Playboy Mommy" showcase the impact that miscarrying had on Amos. Inspired by the freedom of having her own recording studio, the album varies greatly from previous albums, with the acoustic piano-based sound found on Little Earthquakes (1992), Under the Pink (1994) and Boys for Pele (1996) being largely replaced with arrangements that include elements of electronica, jazz, and some styles of dance music. Album reviews were mostly favorable and praised Amos's continued artistic originality. While not her highest chart debut, debut sales for From the Choirgirl Hotel are Amos's best to date, selling 153,000 copies in its first week.

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