What is Perinatal Violence?

I created this page to not only support and offer a voice to birth trauma families, but also in hopes to eventually introduce legislation to my local government and across our nation to outlaw something that seems to become more and more prevalent as each year passes: Perinatal Violence. Perinatal Violence would be take into account violent acts against the mother by her birthing professionals starting shortly before birth up to a few weeks thereafter. Perinatal is a much better term for those of us in countries where the midwifery practice is an active and vital role in our birthing environments. Recently, Venezuela passed an "Obstetric Violence" law which made illegal  the following:

(1) Untimely and ineffective attention of obstetric emergencies;
(2) Forcing the woman to give birth in a supine position, with legs raised,
when the necessary means to perform a vertical delivery are available;
(3) Impeding the early attachment of the child with his/her mother
without a medical cause thus preventing the early attachment and blocking the
possibility of holding, nursing or breast-feeding immediately after birth;
(4) Altering the natural process of low-risk delivery by using acceleration techniques,
without obtaining voluntary, expressed and informed consent of the woman;
(5) Performing delivery via cesarean section, when natural childbirth is possible,
without obtaining voluntary, expressed, and informed consent from the woman.
For more info on their law at The Unnecesarean, click here!

What a concept. Sadly, there is nothing currently in the United States legal system for any of these situations. At this point in time, we have no voice against these infractions. No standing ground! Were you violated during the birth of your child? Your doctor must have been performing a life-saving measure, you'll have to suck it up and get over it. That's what I've heard time and time again after explaining my own birth trauma story in hopes of seeing something done. In reality, non-consensual membrane sweeps (AROM), unwanted vaginal exams, pushing a laboring woman to take drugs she doesn't need or want, all of these things CAN be avoided and in most situations, aren't life or death! Checking a moms cervix right before baby arrives is probably not a life saving measure. But that's what we hear over and over again. 

So what can we do? Individually, there are many things you can do to see that you are heard. We'll get into those steps later. Collectively as a whole, we need to create change. We need to introduce legislation to our state's and the nation like what Venezuela has done. I would love to see other non-consensual issues added to the legislation such as unwanted vaginal exams. This goes beyond medical licensing issues and malpractice; this ventures into making these offenses illegal.

We need to get into the mind-frame that even in childbirth, this is still our own body. We still deserve respect, dignity and if we say NO, it means NO!

What would YOU like to see in a Perinatal Violence law? Let me know in the comments below or on my Facebook page!