Winter won't break these bones

My research focuses on creating a method to examine the way bones of newborns degenerate after death to recreate patterns of fetal mortality in past populations. If a certain type of bone degeneration known as bacterial bioerosion is identified within the bone, it means the baby was born but died shortly after birth.  If there are no traces of bacterial bieorosion, it means the remains were the result of a stillbirth. To create this method, I examined the skeletal remains of individuals recovered from and 18th and 19th Century Methodist Church Cemetery. Fetal mortality offers important insights into population health because it directly reflects the state of wellbeing for expecting mothers. Historically, women and children weren't acknowledged in anthropological research, but digital technologies can be used to create and analyze images of skeletal remains - such as those on the computer screen - and highlight a unique piece of history.  While the pictures on the computer are beautiful, it took a lot of late nights at this disheveled desk to create and assess them. There were definitely moments of frustration, but I wouldn't trade a single stressful second of it.