ABSTRACT
Ethnographic accounts of the new kinship practices that emerged in the last few decades with the help of assisted reproductive technologies frequently used the concepts of 'normalization' and 'naturalization' to explain how pioneers of these new family forms dealt with their novel experiences. Long-term ethnographic research with a number of pregnancy and infant loss support organizations in United Stated (US) provides material with which to reassess the adequacy of the concepts of normalization and naturalization. The author argues that while many of the ways support group members construct their wished-for baby as a family member can be understood as acts of 'normalization' and/or 'naturalization', these concepts do not do justice to the complexity of their family-making practices. Indeed, the 'angel babies' which populate the pregnancy loss support movement are apt examples of troubling the normal. One of the limits of the twin notions of 'normalization' and 'naturalization' is that they describe a unidirectional process.
