A few thoughts on Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day—one, is I am adamant on using "pregnancy loss" as opposed to "miscarriage." "Miscarriage" imbues blame, like the birthing parent did something wrong. But maybe more subtlety, "loss" makes grief more inclusive.
People who do not get recognized nearly enough, imho, in pregnancy and infant loss are non-birthing partners. I've heard from a lot of them over the past two years. Their bodies don't do the thing, so they feel less connected to and entitled to grief, which is simply not true.
The culture of shame and silence around pregnancy and infant loss—created and perpetuated by people who have politicized pregnancy itself—makes this particular grief challenging for everyone, but non-birthing partners especially who can feel helpless through the process.
So I want to recognize everyone today who has grieved this particular loss of hope and dreams for a life they imagined for themselves, and say (without being toxically positive) that it's possible to get to a different place of peace, joy and empathy in the future.

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More from @meredithshiner

6 Oct
These incompetent old white men love using Christmas as a deadline to pressure legislative action even though they all also know they don’t actually care about being home and it only punishes staff. Just get rid of the debt limit already!
Love, Meredith, pointlessly on the floor of the Capitol because of the “fiscal cliff,” New Years Eve 2013 Image
I wish I could remember who took this picture of me, likely on a BlackBerry. BUT EVERYONE HAD A GREAT TIME and I got in a serious fight with a photographer, putting my body between him and a colleague after a Biden scrum. To think it only got infinitely more broken from there!
Read 4 tweets
29 Sep
I don’t often if ever grant on-the-record interviews to other reporters. But after being contacted for this story, I spoke at length in defense of @feliciasonmez and put my name to it. Lived experience should not be disqualifying and you cannot “both-sides” sexual assault.
As @carter_sherman bravely shows through her disclosure here, her personal experience made her reporting better and more sensitive, not worse. Part of why political news is so broken is because privileged white men who have never needed govt protection or support guide coverage.
One anecdote I shared was how in 2009, when I was a new reporter on the Hill covering the ACA debate, I did not get employer insurance and was uninsurable because of a preexisting condition. A colleague chastised me for saying this aloud because people might think I was “biased.”
Read 5 tweets
17 Sep
Joe Biden's press staff circulating Jennifer Rubin columns to "allies" to tweet and Politico covering this as if it's some big scandal instead of merely dopey behavior is why everyone in DC should get the f out of it every once in a while.
literal white nationalists attacked the Capitol and wanted to murder members of Congress THIS YEAR, but the last thing published before the apocalypse/end of the republic will just be "Look who got snubbed from Ron Klain's birthday party!"
anyway, I hate you all sometimes and I think you should know that or likely already do!
Read 4 tweets
30 Aug
🧵 A few thoughts on the Ben Smith piece on Politico (which seems like a crazy thing to write about in a detached way considering he was one of the big figures who launched the site. The anecdotal lede hints at a conflict w/o directly addressing it) (1/4) nytimes.com/2021/08/29/bus…
"A workplace culture *some* employees described as grinding and *sometimes* sexist" is an insane thing to write as a person who worked there—either you were too high up in the Politico caste system to know or you're being intentionally obtuse about the place (2/4)
Politico Pro is just Congressional Quarterly! Politico is getting credit for creating a product that already existed. Now that Politico sold for $1B, The Economist Group looks like an asshole for gutting CQ for parts WHEN IT ACTUALLY WAS AN EXTREMELY GOOD, VALUABLE PRODUCT (3/4)
Read 4 tweets
20 Aug
🧵I shared this privately yesterday but I think it’s important to share with everyone #onhere: the more I think about it, the more I feel like there is a pre-1/6 me and a post-1/6 me. (1/4)
I went into the Capitol building daily for seven years believing certain things, about our republic, about my personal safety at the Capitol, and all those beliefs have been violated and shattered. Worse, those like me who feel this way are being gaslit by powerful people. (2/4)
No one here outside of DC (*other than @jzembik) really understands the depth of these feelings. And I’m incredibly angry, especially with the White House and Senate Democrats who centered on “move on” as a strategy (3/4)
Read 4 tweets
11 Aug
Two years ago, in a hospital bed and irreversible labor, I had a lot of time to think about what was happening to me, how I was swiftly approaching an outcome we didn't desire. And I thought about Republicans attacking Ralph Northam over this interview: cnn.com/2019/01/31/pol…
I thought about how what Ralph Northam described was exactly what I was experiencing, how the mainstream media had taken the GOP bait and made this into a "controversy" when what the actual medical doctor was describing was palliative care within the bounds of medical ethics.
In my sadness, confusion and anger on that day two years, I also felt *presence* because I knew everything would be fleeting, a burst of energy in our lives that never would be recaptured. So I focused on our family, but I also promised myself something.
Read 10 tweets

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