madeofpatterns:

nightunite:

scrawnyflannelman:

emeraldlace:

feminists-against-feminism:

i-was-a-naive-antifeminist:

Obstetric violence is institutional violence. Break the silence.

I’ve heard of some really fucked up forced birth malpractice of doctors. Sharing for awareness. This is more fucked up than circumscision. This is as fucked up as doctors returning your baby to you with a botched circumcision after you made it clear they are absolutely not to circumsize him (which yes, has also happened, which helps me to believe some doctors are fucked enough to do these things). Doesn’t matter if you’re a feminist or not, this is a human rights issue by any standard. (I don’t know anything about the organization advertising itself here, not endorsing or condemning it). Share for awareness. Medical treatment to requires consent, because the second it doesnt, some really fucked up shit is possible, orders of magnitude worse than even this.

…I have questions, now

This looks like some serious shit.

My mom has a story similar to this about me. 

When they found out I was going to have kidney issues (extra ureters, nothing lethal), a secondary doctor demanded my mom have me three weeks early. This was supposedly when my lungs would be ready enough to immediately go into surgery. 

After 16 hours of labor, the original doctor was informed and told my mother how that was unnecessary since I couldn’t be operated on until 8 weeks anyway. My mother had me early for no reason, and they had to monitor my lungs just to be sure I was alright. 

The secondary doctor also demanded weekly amniocentesis on me. Mom says you could see on the monitor me visibly distressed and wiggling away/trying to push away the needle. It got to the point where my mom grabbed the doc’s wrist and told her no more. 

While not as violating as the stories mentioned above, I want to confirm this does happen and if you feel unsure about a doctor at any point that it’s not wrong to switch to one you feel better with. Pregnancy is a complicated thing and the last thing an expecting mother needs/deserves is to be mistreated. 

Also
Women I’ve seen talk about this often express it as “don’t medicalize birth”.
But this kind of thing happens all over the hospital.
And it shouldn’t happen to anyone. Ever.