How traumatic obstetric violence or 'birth rape' affects millions of mums

CATCHING her breath between screams, Jodie Gibbons yelled at the consultant to stop. “I was halfway through a contraction in the labour ward, and the pain was horrendous,” she remembers.

While some experts may argue that such examinations are to be expected in the fast-paced atmosphere of a maternity ward, a growing number of people claim it falls under the umbrella of obstetric violence, where patients are subjected to painful gynaecological procedures and invasive treatment without consent during pregnancy andThe term was first used legally in Venezuela, when it was brought into legislation in 2007 to protect women giving birth.

Obstetric violence doesn’t just apply to childbirth. It can also occur during terminations or post-miscarriage procedures. In October last year, Croatian MP Ivana Nincevic-Lesandric publicly shared her experience, revealing medical staff tied up her arms and legs during an abortion in February 2018 and started the procedure of curettage – scraping the cervix to remove a growing embryo – without anaesthesia. She described it as “the most painful 30 minutes of my life.

Following a vaginal exam by her midwife, who said Jodie was 5cm dilated, the consultant insisted on doing another one. That same month, Jodie says a senior midwife from the hospital visited and told her she needed to get over it. According to Camilla, the majority of victims of obstetric violence rarely question doctors, even when something feels wrong.

, it’s the worst moment for a doctor as they may have to watch a baby die, knowing it could have been prevented. The mother is always the priority.”“In an ideal world, every mum to be should be a doctor’s only priority, but the reality is they’ve got several mums under their care,” she says. The experience left Sarah extremely distressed, and two months after the birth she made a complaint to the hospital. A few months later she received a formal letter of apology, and had her notes amended to reflect the fact she hadn’t consented.“It was all so traumatic,” says Sarah. “The hospital explained that Ben’s head was in a difficult position, so I accept the episiotomy and forceps may have been necessary, but it doesn’t change the fact that I should have been asked and better informed.

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