Obstetric Violence, Another Form of Violence Against Women. The Tenerife Case

Abstract

Introduction

The subject of this study is Obstetric Violence (OV). OV is understood as the different ways in which pregnant women, or those who are going into labor, are controlled and oppressed. OV may be considered as another type of gender-based violence because its aim is to control and oppress women. Additionally, OV could be considered as institutional and symbolic violence.

Objectives

The aim of this study is to discover whether new mothers in Tenerife are being subject to Obstetric Violence and to bring to light the way in which they experience it.

Materials and methods

This is a descriptive study. The instrument for collecting data was a survey based on an OV test from several Argentinian organizations. Facebook and WhatsApp were used for collecting the data. The survey was completed by 282 women who had given birth between January 2008 and February 2016.

Results

The results show that 56.4% of the sample was subject to OV during childbirth. The most important indicators were the involvement of students without the mother’s consent and the change of the pace in childbirth for the convenience of the healthcare staff.

Conclusions

OV often occurs because childbirth is technologically-oriented and understood as an assembly line-like process, which depersonalizes and denaturalizes childbirth. This results in women not being viewed holistically but treated as patients in need of medical and surgical treatment.