I Had a Miscarriage - A Memoir, a Movement

In this evocative account of navigating pregnancy loss, Jessica Zucker confronts the cultural silence around miscarriages and illuminates how she built a movement from her experience, transforming trauma into human connection.

About the author

Jessica Zucker is a Los Angeles-based psychologist specializing in reproductive and maternal mental health. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, NBC, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, Glamour, Instyle, BuzzFeed, ELLE, SELF, TIME, VICE, among others, and she has been featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNN, and NPR. Jessica is the creator of the #IHadaMiscarriage campaign, a multi-platform effort. Dr. Zucker earned advanced degrees from New York University and Harvard University.

Summary

Sixteen weeks into her second pregnancy, psychologist Jessica Zucker miscarried at home, alone. Suddenly, her career, spent specializing in reproductive and maternal mental health, was rendered corporeal, no longer just theoretical. She now had a changed perspective on her life’s work, her patients’ pain, and the crucial need for a zeitgeist shift. Navigating this nascent transition amid her own grief became a catalyst for Jessica to bring voice to this ubiquitous experience. She embarked on a mission to upend the strident trifecta of silence, shame, and stigma that surrounds reproductive loss—and the result is her striking memoir meets manifesto.

Drawing from her psychological expertise and her work as the creator of the #IHadaMiscarriage campaign, I Had a Miscarriage is a heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, and validating book about navigating these liminal spaces and the vitality of truth telling—an urgent reminder of the power of speaking openly and unapologetically about the complexities of our lives.

Jessica Zucker weaves her own experience and other women's stories into a compassionate and compelling exploration of grief as a necessary, nuanced personal and communal process. She inspires her readers to speak their truth and, in turn, to ignite transformative change within themselves and in our culture.

Foreword

• Pitching for apperance at 2020 CALIBIA Fall Discovery Show; also FP will hire an outside freelance publicist to focus specifically on landing big media hits (television and radio)
• ARCs available in April 2020


• ARCs to sales reps before sales season, as well as select indie bookseller mailing


• National print, radio, and online campaign focusing on outlets and writers with an interest in: women's narratives, motherhood, reproductive rights, gender equity. This is Feminist Press's lead title of the fiction and will receive the most robust marketing campaign that emphasizes the topical subject matter of the book. 


• Promotion on Feminist Press e-newsletter, website, and social media channels


• Promotion on author's website (www.drjessicazucker.com) and social media channels. Jessica Zucker's #IHadaMiscarriage Instagram has a following of 43.2k, and has been featured on the Today Show, Glamour, Self, and more.


• Targeted local publicity to promote author's speaking engagements


• Support for initial four-city author tour with bookstore stops: New York City, Los Angeles, and two TBD. 

Additional text

“This book should serve as both balm and guidebook for those suffering from such loss. A contemplative, sensitive, and necessary work in the field of pregnancy and parenting.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Heartbreaking and powerful.” —L.A. Parent Magazine

“With raw emotion, Dr. Zucker provides a vulnerable account of miscarriage and grief in the context of silence, stigma, and shame.” —Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work

“Dr. Zucker’s book compassionately shows that there is no one way to grieve a miscarriage, and in doing so normalizes a spectrum of mourning we don’t talk about nearly enough. There are lessons on grief for all of us—whether we have experienced miscarriage or not—in her brilliant, beautiful pages. A must read.” —Lori Gottlieb, author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone 

“An essential book for those raw in grief or looking to support and understand a loved one’s sorrow. This is not a cold textbook but rather a compassionate love story about death and life, written by an expert who not only counsels but also has experienced such harrowing loss. Zucker’s warmth, insight, and honesty make every page bloom with tenderness.” —Mira Ptacin, author of Poor Your Soul 

“When my pregnancy and relationship suddenly and painfully ended, Dr. Zucker's ‘I Had a Miscarriage’ campaign gave me a lifeline and a silent virtual community of witnesses and words when I had none. Documenting her experience and the campaign with this riveting memoir helps us all normalize miscarriage experiences and end stigma, shame, and silence.” —Yamani Hernandez, executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds 

“By writing so bravely and candidly about her own miscarriage, Dr. Zucker has given us a deeply humane book, inviting conversation and community into what for many has been a place of shame and silence. This is a book for everyone whose life has been touched by the loss of a pregnancy.” —Carol Gilligan, author of In a Different Voice

“The book I wish I had with me on my topsy-turvy road to motherhood.” —Piera Gelardi, cofounder of Refinery29

“As a husband who held his wife while she experienced a second-trimester miscarriage, I appreciated the depths Jessica was willing to explore in order to share her remarkable story and to generate awareness about this type of devastating loss. I Had A Miscarriage is a poignant book that both men and women can benefit from in order to process the grief of a miscarriage.” —Dan Crane, journalist, author, and documentary filmmaker

“Time was, miscarriage was something families suffered through in silence. If they did talk about it, they were encouraged, often with destructive platitudes, to move on quickly from the experience. Jessica Zucker's work—in her clinical practice, her online community, and now this powerful book—gives people permission to acknowledge their loss and process their grief. This totally absorbing memoir will reduce the isolation that so many who experience pregnancy loss feel. It's about time.” —Gabrielle Birkner, coauthor of Modern Loss: Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome.

“The book you need that you wish you didn't. Jessica Zucker is an expert in pregnancy loss who's lived it too, and she delivers a much-needed call for new ways to acknowledge, grieve, and gather around what has been an exclusively private pain for too long.” —Anna Sale, host and creator of the podcast Death, Sex & Money

“Jessica Zucker's book is so much more than a recounting of her own experience—though her vulnerability and transparency alone make it worth reading—but about how our society has minimized the experience of pregnancy loss for so many on the basis of politics, religion, race, socioeconomic status, and gender. We have so far to go to eradicate shame and silence on this topic, and this book—and Dr. Zucker's #IHadaMiscarriage movement—does a powerful job of shifting the narrative to one that is more inclusive, loving, and deeply empathic.” —Megan Lierley, managing editor of Blood & Milk

Product details

Authors	Jessica Zucker
Publisher	Ingram Publishers Services
Languages	English
Product format	Paperback / Softback
Released	09.03.2021
EAN	9781558612884
ISBN	978-1-55861-288-4
No. of pages	240
Subjects	Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Marriage & Family, FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Death, Grief, Bereavement, PSYCHOLOGY / Grief & Loss

Product details

• Authors: Jessica Zucker
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 09.03.2021
• EAN: 9781558612884
• ISBN: 978-1-55861-288-4
• No. of pages: 240
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Marriage & Family, FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Death, Grief, Bereavement, PSYCHOLOGY / Grief & Loss