Hard to Bear by Isabelle Oderberg

Every year miscarriage affects up to 150,000 Australians and the people that love them. So why are we so damned bad at dealing with it?

A busy doctor dismissing a patient’s physical or mental pain, an emergency department falling far short of adequate care or a friend or family member who has no idea what to say so they say the worst thing of all. Sorrow and loss are compounded each step of the way.

In Hard to Bear, journalist Isabelle Oderberg investigates the world’s most common pregnancy complication, from the origins of the silence that engulfs it, to the role played by medical misogyny in treatment, and why Reproductive Justice must be at the heart of every solution.

Combining in-depth investigative skills with her own lived experience and that of hundreds of others, Oderberg charts a course to improve the system and change the lives of anyone directly or indirectly touched by early pregnancy loss, with practical and generous advice and suggestions along the way.

About the Author

After growing up in Hong Kong, Isabelle Oderberg went to university in Melbourne. She has worked as a journalist for two decades in newswires across Europe, Asia and Australia, where she was the country’s first social media editor for Melbourne’s Herald Sun . Her work has appeared in The Age/SMH, Guardian, ABC, Meanjin and elsewhere. She also worked as a media and communications strategist across the not-for-profit sector. Hard to Bear is her first book.