Renaming Stillbirth Category

Question

I would like to voice my opinion about the category "Stillbirth" or "Stillborn", is a very touchy subject for a woman.  Can we just leave it as "Died Young", Died at Infancy, something to that nature.  Thank you

Comments

There is nothing untactful, or insensitive, about a stillbirth being named as a stillbirth.  The baby did not die young, as that implies they breathed after birth so to die.  They died before they were born.

Such a category is factual, and the new sticker for such babes, came about after much lobbying from people who had lost their unborn to stillbirth.

As someone with multiple miscarriages and stillbirths in my family (some to close relatives, some to not so close), I cannot see why it would be considered insensitive to use the term that is correct.
Should we also ignore that a "miscarriage", as we now call it, was also historically known as "spontaneous abortion", just because the word "abortion" has come to mean something else?  As family historians and researchers it is our (often sad) task to name things as they were.

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I'm with Melanie and Marty, the term stillbirth is not hurtful per se.  The occurrence certainly is for the mother, but naming it anything else would be misleading.  The child did not live to draw a first breath.  I see lots of such instances in ancestral families.  As for categorising it, I wonder why such a category exists.  Would get humungous very soon, considering all the time and all the locations where such happens.

Answer 1

Stillbirth is an accurate term that clarifies that the pregnancy did not result in a living child. It also clarifies what other documents may or may not exist.

If there is another term that would be more appropriate, I am not aware of it.  My family history several miscarriages noted recorded. It isn't the word that can be painful, it is the emotions linked to it.

Comments

Thank you Ross.

Answer 2

The thing is that you don't want to be misleading so that people look for additional records or might confuse them with another child that would have lived into childhood.

I'm not saying you're wrong on your point, I don't think that reappropriating another category that is currently being used for something else is the answer. Perhaps someone can think of a unique term that is more tactful.