title: Moving beyond disrespect and abuse: addressing the structural dimensions of obstetric violence.
abstract: During recent decades, a growing and preoccupying excess of medical interventions during childbirth, even in physiological and uncomplicated births, together with a concerning spread of abusive and disrespectful practices towards women during childbirth across the world, have been reported. Despite research and policy-making to address these problems, changing childbirth practices has proved to be difficult. We argue that the excessive rates of medical interventions and disrespect towards women during childbirth should be analysed as a consequence of structural violence, and that the concept of obstetric violence, as it is being used in Latin American childbirth activism and legal documents, might prove to be a useful tool for addressing structural violence in maternity care such as high intervention rates, non-consented care, disrespect and other abusive practices.
authors: Assistant Professor, Departamento de Antropología, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile. Electronic address: msadler@uchile.cl.
authors: Michelle
authors: M
authors: Sadler
authors: Research Assistant, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), CIES-IUL, Lisboa, Portugal.
authors: Mário Jds
authors: MJ
authors: Santos
authors: Assistant Professor on History of Science, Department of Surgery and Medical and Social Sciences, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain.
authors: Dolores
authors: D
authors: Ruiz-Berdún
authors: Assistant Professor, Escuela de Obstetricia y Puericultura, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
authors: Gonzalo Leiva
authors: GL
authors: Rojas
authors: Independent Researcher, Laboratorio Multimediale di Comparazione Giuridica, Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche, Università degli Studi "Roma TRE", Unità di Ricerca "Diritti Umani nella Maternità e Nascita", Roma, Italy.
authors: Elena
authors: E
authors: Skoko
authors: Head of Research and Development for Nurses, Midwives and AHPs, Southern Health and Social Care Trust, Belfast, United Kingdom; Lecturer, School of Nursing, Institute of Nursing and Health Sciences, Ulster University, Belfast.
authors: Patricia
authors: P
authors: Gillen
authors: Senior Lecturer, Metropolitan University College, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors: Jette A
authors: JA
authors: Clausen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D036861:Delivery, Obstetric; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D007843:Latin America; D008427:Maternal Health Services; D011247:Pregnancy; D037841:Pregnant People; D014754:Violence; D014933:Women's Rights
keywords: human rights in childbirth; medicalisation; non-evidence-based practice; structural violence; violence against women