Elizabeth Heineman

Elizabeth Heineman is the mother of one stillborn and two surviving children. Her memoir of her stillbirth, Ghostbelly, appeared with Feminist Press in 2014. She is a professor at the University of Iowa, where she specializes in European history, gender and sexuality studies, and the history of human rights. She lives in Iowa City.

Articles:

Elizabeth Heineman: Mourning a Stillbirth

A stillborn birth is a loss and trauma that’s relatively rare, which can make getting support a little more challenging. In this episode of The Open to Hope show, Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley discuss still births with Elizabeth Heineman, who lost her son Thor in a still birth. This loss prompted journaling and eventually the publication of a book, Ghostbelly. It was a planned pregnancy, and Heineman had an older child (16) with a previous partner who was a woman. Now in a new relationship with a man who didn’t have any children, but wanted them, Heineman and her […]

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‘Würmchen is Dead’

There’s an old pear tree in our back yard. It’s too close to the house. One of these days, a windstorm will blow one of the high branches onto the roof, and we’ll wish we’d had it removed earlier. Already, windstorms have taken down the three ancient apple trees that were on the property when I bought the house. The pear tree is very sick. The center is nearly hollow, and you can see the rot in the branches. It’s only a matter of time. But I hate the thought of chopping it down. It’s the last of the old […]

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