Modularity

Description

0. Makers & Support

Hashtags illustrated personal enterprises dedicated to support grieving parents or organizations to raise awareness or financial resources. Craft projects such as up-cycling wedding dresses to make newborn outfits or knitting are examples of such enterprises.

1. Hope & Infertility

The focus was on infertility issues in relation to mental health, like anxiety, depression and sadness. They were symbolized as a journey. Expressions of frustration were used (#infertilitysucks). Ways for recovery, like self-care and therapy were promoted.

2. Grief (visual) rituals and reflexivity

Healing and bereavement are central words. The platform offers a venue for celebration specific events such as #bereavedmothersday and further ritualize the process of grief. Other celebratory moments were included in the words, like birthdays, easter or babyshowers for rainbow babies (baby born after a stillbirth). Or activities were described such as beach visits, yoga, meditation and even marathons. Also one finds platform-specific rituals based on using photography to capture one’s grief and healing.

3. Motherhood in loss

Emphasis on being a mother or a father, despite the loss of the stillborn child was apparent in the hashtags. With hashtags are #stillamom #iamamother or #iamafather, the users were re-appropriating their parenthood. In addition, they emphasized they had a child #imissmydaughter #imissmyson.

4. Art & charity

The cluster of hashtags shows some overlap and is tightly connected with the ‘Makers and Support’ cluster. Activities with regards to arts, crafts, drawings and sewing clothes are integrated into the hashtags and related to charity purposes for medical and public support for women who grieve from stillbirth.

5. Grieving

In this cluster, grieving is appropriated as general terminology. Although it is therefore tightly related to the cluster of grief rituals, the network shows that its use has a more scattered pattern with regards to other hashtags. Moreover, users used these hashtags are more to identify as a grieving parent instead of describing the activities that were pertaining to grieving.

6. Medical support & pregnancy after loss

The hashtags were used to express issues that pertained to the pregnancy after a stillbirth. In a positive sense, words to track the pregnancy (#secondtrimester, #thirdtrimester) showed the excitement and anxiety. Also, the users expressed how they overcame the hard times and their feelings of strength. But also different medical conditions like #ptsd or #postpartum and different kinds of treatments were used in this cluster.

7. Unfiltered

Focusing on words like honesty, blogging and #momlife, the hashtags represented that the users wanted to give an (unfiltered) peek into their life. It was focused on the #raising #toddler #candidchildhood.

8. New identity formation & expression

Hashtags were used for self-identification, like #ihadamisscariage #iamthe1in4. In addition, words to characterize how they expressed their grief, like #grievingoutloud #writingaboutloss, were used.

9. Connecting & communicating

The feeling and vehicle for connectivity that Instagram provides to its users, and therewith its potential to provide support, was represented in the hashtags. #youarenotalone, #weunderstand #passiton, were statements to emphasize the sense of community on the platform. Also, words of support that can be circulated by #lifequotes and #lovequotes.

10. Religion & inspiration

Hashtags that were related to religion as well as to books, writers, and artistic forms of inspiration were used. In general, this can be seens as sources to find relief, comfort and insights to deal with the loss of the child. Artists, including writers and filmmakers, also used these hashtags to promote their artistic outlets that dealt with the issue of stillbirth and grief.

11. Spanish

This cluster was characterized by Spanish words that, quite generically, described grief and motherhood. The cluster also contained some general English words like #missingyou or #babyangel. This group of hashtags may therefore be expected to be used by the Spanish community of grieving mothers on Instagram.

12. Memorialization

Missing and remembering were part of the grammar in this cluster of hashtags. #tinyfeet was a strong symbol of the memory of the #angelbabies. Foreverbeds and cuttle cots were hashtagged as well. Within this cluster, commercial enterprises were also active to provide products for the memorialization of mourning, like personalised gifts or toy animals.

13. Awareness

This cluster contained a manageable amount of three hashtags: #stillaware, #awarenessforprevention and #educationforawareness. It shows how hashtags for raising awareness are tightly connected in the posts with regards to stillbirth on Instagram.