Why the music industry should do more to support expecting mothers

Childbirth is the most stressful thing you can put your body through, so why does the industry make it look so easy?

by Leah Parks-Davies

25th of November 2021

Five years on from having to perform minutes after finding out she had a miscarage, Halsey announces she is pregnant, but is the obsessive sugar coating of the music industry damaging and undermining the blood and gore of motherhood?

Females such as Beyonce and cardi b are praised and put on a pedestal for performing pregnant, but no one is willing to discuss the horrid effects caring a child has on your body. Just take Beyonce's iconic Coachella performance.

With only 10 month after giving birth to twins, Beyonce had to lose weight, learn choreography and put a whole head-line show together while breastfeeding and dealing with postnatal depression. From just watching clips of her documentary (homecoming) the bags under her eyes and her spasming muscles tell you the physical (and mental) strain all of these events are having on her body. However, without watching this documentary you would have no clue her pregnancy was so tough or so closely related to that performance.

Thankfully for most pregnant women in the industry cramps and postpartum depression is the most they'll suffer. However the strain of working through the pregnancy and the stress and threat of losing a career due to time off has led to pregnancy problems and miscarriages.

One very notable miscarriage being caused by the recording of gimme shelter by The Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger called on Merry Clayton in the early morning putting her under severe pressure to perform a challenging backing vocal for the song while heavily pregnant and subsequently leading to the loss of the unborn child.

Some point to less advanced medical studies and less advanced maternity practices back in the 60s. If so, why do so many artists to this day still struggle with conceiving and why do so many lose their unborn children while on tour or working in the industry.

To this day household names such as Beyonce, Halsey, Christian Perri, Carrie Underwood and Whitney Houtson have all struggled and spoken out about having miscarriages and how they dealt with the specific grief most women feel when they’ve lost a child they have never met.

Most recently to go through this grief is Jessie J, who came out announcing the loss of her child before even announcing she was carrying it. Jessie J, who just like Halsey, had to perform hours after finding out this news, brokedown on stage in tears. However she explained that she felt music was the only thing that was going to help her through despite people saying it was to distract her from her grieving process.

With this rise in celebrity miscarriages i hope it brings a gilmmer of hope not only to the music industry but to how people treat pregnant women everywhere. Paid maternity leave should be accessible to every person who is able to carry a child as well as support and paid leave for those that lose one.