Obstetric violence in historical perspective

Abstract

Although improvements in perinatal care have helped save many lives worldwide, reproductive health inequities remain rife. Racial, geographical, and class-based disparities shape divergent maternal and infant health outcomes, as well as unequal access to vital forms of health care such as abortion. Present-day reproductive injustices are contextualised by many factors, including the under-recognised history of obstetric violence. Obstetric violence refers to harm inflicted during or in relation to pregnancy, childbearing, and the post-partum period. Such violence can be both interpersonal and structural, arising from the actions of health-care providers and also from broader political and economic arrangements that disproportionately harm marginalised populations. By focusing on obstetric violence, we centre the long and enduring history of biological reproduction as a site of social violence. In doing so, we elucidate how obstetric violence has reflected and amplified different forms of social and political discrimination, oppression, and exclusion.