Obstetric violence: contested meanings, rights, science and medicalization

Abstract

In Brazil, the fight against what has been called obstetric violence has been taking shape in recent years. In public events such as symposiums and militant conferences, public hearings, marches, as well as in obstetrics and gynecology conferences, the debates on what is meant by obstetric violence reveal disputes between the activists for humanized birth, doctors, nurses, doulas, midwives and an increasing number of women seeking a birth considered respectful. In this sense, the research project developed in Brazil (Case Number FAPESP 2015/09682-0) follows these events and, based on a qualitative methodology, analyzes the way in which the category obstetric violence is created, the meanings assigned to it and the way it is constructed as a social problem to be tackled. Meanwhile, the project hereby presented proposes a research internship period abroad, which aims to consolidate the academic connections with researchers in areas such as history, sociology and anthropology who are specialized in science, medicine and gender, seeking especially those who have been researching the issue of medicalization of childbirth through the project "(Over)medicalization of childbirth as a Public Problem: Trajectories Material, Public Controversies, Institutional Changes", which has Prof. Dr. Ilana Löwy as one of its coordinators. It is a project of international range that will allow me to further explore the issues that I have been pursuing in my research, notably the links between sexual and reproductive rights and the notion of science operated in the context of the movement for humanization of childbirth in Brazil. The internship will be done at Cermes3 (Centre de recherche médecine, sciences, santé, santé mentale, societé) of the Institut National de la Santé et Recherche Médicale (INSERM), linked to the University Paris Descartes (Paris V) and will be supervised by Prof. Dr. Ilana Löwy. In this manner, I seek new parameters of analysis that will help me deepen the analysis of the construction of the category obstetric violence in Brazil. (AU)