Activities per year
Abstract
Can ‘obstetric violence’ be a generative lens through which to understand Australian women’s experiences of labour and birth? Setting contemporary debates about obstetric violence in a longer chronological trajectory offers the opportunity to see continuity and change in how medical professionals over time enacted physical and psychological violence on the women in their care. It also has the potential to demonstrate women’s resistance to, but also acquiescence to and collaboration in this violence.
Taking Australian maternity care practice as a case study, this chapter explores obstetric violence from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Theorising obstetric violence in a way that moves beyond the legal definition to a conceptualisation of historical utility, we draw on Gayatri Spivak’s understanding of epistemic violence in an effort to understand how medical authority, often inadvertently, wields psychological violence against women. We analyse women’s birth narratives in the popular press, as well as in a recent online survey.
Taking Australian maternity care practice as a case study, this chapter explores obstetric violence from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Theorising obstetric violence in a way that moves beyond the legal definition to a conceptualisation of historical utility, we draw on Gayatri Spivak’s understanding of epistemic violence in an effort to understand how medical authority, often inadvertently, wields psychological violence against women. We analyse women’s birth narratives in the popular press, as well as in a recent online survey.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Australian Motherhood |
Subtitle of host publication | Historical and Sociological Perspectives |
Editors | Carla Pascoe, Petra Bueskens |
Place of Publication | Cham Switzerland |
Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
Chapter | 11 |
Pages | 239-25 |
Number of pages | 17 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9783030202675 |
ISBN (Print) | 9783030202668 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Keywords
- Maternal care
- Obstetric violence
- trauma
Activities
- 1 Public event
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Traumatic Birth: A Conversation
Paula Michaels (Contributor), Elizabeth Anne Sutton (Contributor) & Nicole Highet (Contributor)
13 Nov 2018Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public event