Lack of information, medicalization or protocol interventions without medical justification, mother-baby separation, derogatory or paternalistic treatment. Does it ring a bell? If you are one of the thousands of women who have gone through one or more of these situations, you have been a victim of Obstetric violence.
When we talk about gender violenceWe all have hitting, verbal or emotional abuse, sexual harassment etc. in mind. But it does not occur to anyone to question the decisions of healthcare personnel during childbirth. Nor to think that the procedures are contrary to scientific evidence and WHO recommendations or Ministry of Health.
However, Obstetric Violence exists. And it has been recognized by the World Health Organizationas a form of Gender Violence for violating women's rights.
What is obstetric violence?
Is that which suffers women during their pregnancies and childbirth by health professionals who consider these physiological processes as something pathological and the woman incapable of deciding on her own body.
According to the WHO “Throughout the world, many women suffer disrespectful and offensive treatment during childbirth in health centers, which not only violates women's rights respectful care, but also threatens their rights to life, health, physical integrity and non-discrimination.
What practices are considered obstetric violence?
- Unnecessary touching during the days before or during delivery
- Inductions and unnecessary caesarean sections and many times scheduled at the convenience of the professional who will attend the delivery.
- Hamilton maneuver to help trigger labor. This maneuver is usually performed in one touch by making a circular movement of the finger to separate the membranes and favor the maturation of the cervix.
- Routine episiotomies. Cutting of the perineum (skin and muscles between the vagina and the anus) during labor to enlarge the vaginal canal.
- Forcing the woman to give birth lying down or making movement impossible
- Kristeller maneuver. A maneuver advised against by the WHO and by the Spanish Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics. It consists of pressing the uterus to facilitate the descent of the baby.
- Prohibition of ingesting food or beverages
- Lack of privacy
- Bad answers, humiliating treatment and infantilization of women.
- Mother-child separation
- Lack of empathy and emotional support.
These are just a few examples of the violence that some women suffer at such a delicate time. Many women are left with consequences, not only physical, but also emotional, because they feel their rights violated and their feelings ignored. And if that was not enough, many women are not even aware of having suffered it since it is something normalized, something that is done "for the good of our babies and our own."
But obstetric violence, no matter how much we deny it, exists and is not normal. Pregnancy and childbirth are not a disease. They are physiological processes that, in most cases, do not require unnecessary interventions and are far from scientific evidence. Obstetric violence is also gender violence and we must not consent to it.