Obstetric Violence: Realities, and Resistance from Around the World

by Julie Johnson Searcy is (Editor), Nicole Hill (Editor), Angela N. Castaïed (Editor)

Overview

In this book, we make space to interrogate obstetric violence; from its historical and legal roots and contemporary realities, to responses of advocacy and resistance. Through the lens of obstetric violence, we are able to see overlap in structural vulnerability across continents as well as recognize the ways in which obstetric violence is symptomatic of larger global problems including systemic injustices related to reproductive health. Combining the perspectives of care providers, birthing people, advocates, and researchers, our volume seeks to include both a systematic and structural understanding of obstetric violence. We bring together diverse voices, from practitioners, to activists, to academics, and provide a global perspective on obstetric violence with research from around the world, including indigenous communities from North America (Canada and Hawaii), examples from Latin American and Caribbean countries, as well as country-specific cases from Argentina, Australia, Egypt, Mexico, Portugal, and the United States. The range of disciplinary perspectives and global experiences presented in this book demonstrates that obstetric violence is neither bound to one discipline, nor site specific. Together the chapters of this volume work to understand obstetric violence, moving beyond static definitions towards a spectrum of lived experiences that highlight three main areas: Legislation and Policy, Experiencing Obstetric Violence, and Advocacy, Resistance and Reframing. The time for a global recognition of obstetric violence—of the larger structural forces embedded in systems that cross cultures and violate bodies in acutely vulnerable life moments— is now. By naming it and saying it out loud, we recognize obstetric violence exists and can together begin the process of systemic change necessary to prevent it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781772583755
Publisher:	Demeter Press
Publication date:	03/28/2022
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Julie Johnson Searcy is an Instructor at Butler University in the History and Anthropology Department. Her research compares experiences of birthing women across clinical settings and addresses stratified reproduction, violence, race, and HIV in a post-apartheid South Africa. Nicole Hill is a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Her research interests include feminism, maternity, bodies, violence, and culture. She has an advocacy background in maternity health care and breastfeeding in Alberta. Angela N. Castañeda is Professor of Anthropology at DePauw University. Her research explores questions on religion and expressive culture as well as the cultural politics of reproduction, birth, and motherhood across the Americas. She specializes in the role of doulas in birth culture and is co-editor of Doulas and Intimate Labour.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 5

A message from the artist 7

Introduction Angela N. Castaneda Nicole Hill Julie Johnson Searcy 13

Part I Legislation and Policy 25

1 Root of the Poisonous Tree: Historical and Current Factors Contributing to Mistreatment in Birth in the US Farah Diaz-Tello Indra Lusero Colleen Campbell Deborah Fisch Saraswathi Vedam Monica McLemore Jacqueline K. Hammack 27

2 Protecting Hawai'i's Birthkeepers and Midwives: Obstetric Violence and Hawai'i's New Midwifery Law Alexandra Kisitu 43

3 Public Policies and Obstetric Violence: An Anthropological Overview of Achievements and Challenges in Argentina Patrizia Quattrocchi 59

Part II Experiencing Obstetric Violence 77

4 Women Speak Out: Obstetric Violence in Egypt Merette Khalil Anna Rita Ronzoni 79

5 Obstetric Violence in the Age of Evidence-Based Medicine and the Contradictions of Care: An Auto ethnographic Approach Morgen A. Chalmiers 95

6 Racism in the Birth Room: Obstetric Violence in the US Context Carolyn Fraker 109

7 Structural Vulnerability and Obstetric Violence among Childbearing Adolescents in the United States: Narratives of Care Courtney L. Everson 125

8 Doulas as Witnesses to Obstetric Violence Hillary Melchiors Angela N. Castañeda 141

9 "You're in a Hospital, Not a Hotel!": An Ethnographic Perspective on Consumer Culture, Privilege, and Obstetric Violence in Portugal Catarina Barata 159

10 Separated, Monitored, and Instructed: The NICU as a Site of Obstetric Violence Laura Tolton 177

Part III Advocacy, Resistance, and Refraining 193

11 Constructing Obstetric Violence in Canadian News Media Nicole Hill 195

12 "The Hospital Staff were the Enemy": Online Narratives of Birth Trauma Sarah Benbow Jodi Hall 211

13 "Only Then Will the Buffalo Return": Disrupting Obstetric Violence through Indigenous Reproductive Justice Leslie Dawson Terri Suntjens 221

14 Exposing Abortion-Related Obstetric Violence through Activism in Latin America and the Caribbean Mariana Prandini Assis Sara Larrea 243

15 "Everything Is Obstetric Violence Now": Contextualizing the Movement in Mexico Lydia Z. Dixon 259

Notes on Contributors 275

Editorial Reviews

"A compelling and illuminating multi-voice account that reveals/unveils the various shapes in which obstetric violence, one of the most normalized expressions of violence against women throughout the world, is expressed. A violence embedded in the social fabric in such a way that it has been perpetuated despite its devastating consequences in the lives of women, newborns, families and societies as a whole, and especially in those who are most vulnerable amongst them. Essential reading to recognize, name and address obstetric violence, opening the horizon for a discussion about giving birth to healthier and caring generations to come." —Michelle Sadler, medical anthropologist, birth researcher, and activist

From the Publisher