Ananthram, Harsha, Sutton, Liz, Matthews, Rebecca, Montgomery, Nadine, Titcombe, James, and Rane, Ajay (2025) Linguistic manoeuvres: obstetric violence camouflages harm and loss of consent from birth. Medical Journal of Australia, 223 (7). pp. 343-345.

Preview

PDF (Published Version) - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (256kB) | Preview

Abstract

[Extract] The recent inquiries into birth trauma in New South Wales (NSW) and the United Kingdom (UK)1, 2 have led to increased scrutiny of maternity care standards. These inquiries found that a failure to listen, poor communication, and care that lacked balanced information, adequate pain relief and kindness were hurting birthing women. Women also experience harm from unsolicited interventions. The antenatal provision of good quality information is critical to consent at birth. Informing women about available choices during pregnancy, or the decoding of the birth experience after birth, risks being hindered by hyperbolic discussions focused on “obstetric violence”. In this article, we problematise the term “obstetric violence” and suggest that it may confuse harm done to women by the promotion of “normal birth”. In this article, “woman” represents all women and birthing people.

Actions (Repository Staff Only)

Item Control Page