“Yo trato de no llorar”: Rethinking Obstetric Violence in Costa Rica

Abstract

ABSTRACT Obstetric violence is an emergent paradigm that uses gender-based violence to frame traumatic childbirth. Despite its growing popularity in the literature, it may not adequately address the nuanced ways that all actors experience these interactions. While Costa Rica adopted a nationally endorsed humane birthing policy, the semi-structured interviews on which I draw in this article show that health care personnel continue to dehumanize and objectify women; experiences considered characteristic of obstetric violence. However, women’s own interpretations of their experiences are not aligned with definitions of obstetric violence. This lacuna in praxis highlights the need to critically reevaluate how birth trauma is conceptualized within a contemporary context.