Janet Fraser's new book Born Still: A Memoir of Grief was launched online by Dr Petra Bueskens, August 2020. You can watch it here.
Table of Contents
Betrayal
Pathologising Women
Chapter Five
The Inquest
Looking for the Witch Mark
Feminism on Trial
My Big Lies
No End in Sight
My Statement to the Court
Submissions
Chapter Six
The Findings
Conclusion
Endnotes
Introduction
When Grief is Political
The Witch's Double: The Mother the System Tried to Crush
Chapter One
Planning the Birth of a Child: Hope and Reality
Rights of Women First
Chapter Two
Birthing at Home
Chapter Three
Birthing My Daughter
May 2009
Chapter Four
The Aftermath
The Law Intervenes on Postmortem
What Happens When a Baby is Stillborn?
Reviews
FIVE STAR REVIEW
A profound and incredible memoir of grief. This is a profoundly moving memoir of one woman's incredible journey of private and public grief. At once a love story, a feminist rallying cry, and a tender heart-to-heart between one mother and the reader, Fraser shines a light on one of patriarchy's oldest and deepest roots: the unparalleled fear of a woman who makes decisions for her own body. Fraser writes with intimacy, candour and wit. As a narrator Fraser is both erudite and accessible, bold and vulnerable, and the memoir takes considerable strength from Fraser's ability to articulate how her own heart-rending story is both bewilderingly unique, yet also inextricable from those of almost every woman from countless generations past: shaped by misogyny. Fraser writes, 'If women's lives are better, then our birthing is better. Birth is a distillation and indication of women's overall rights in any society." For a society that considers itself modern, progressive and fair, what the Australian so-called 'justice' systems and media put a grieving mother through is staggering. A must-read not just for those interested in the politics of feminism and childbirth in modern society, but for anyone wishing to explore, and open up to, their own humanity.
— Reader Review, Booktopia