Child birth is considered to be the most happy
and important event of life.
We are all here as a result of the miracle of birth.
So when I talk about my PhD and put disrespect
and abuse and birth in one context
I usually get a lot of raised eye brows and
suspicion around it.
Who wants to abuse a woman when she is at her most vulnerable? Right?
That is the sad reality of women giving birth all around the world.
The first time I saw this was for a woman I was providing care for, who was in labour
and I was a student midwife.
The doctor came to do a vaginal examination, lifted her skirt without any explanation
and said how does your husband want to do anything with you with the jungle you have grown?
He was joking and this was physical abuse, verbal abuse, lack of privacy and sexual abuse
all in one woman's experience.
Some of these you are seeing here in a birth me and Soumi observed together and thought
words fall short to describe this experience.
Over the next 12 years I saw enough mistreatment around child birth and
read the global literature around it.
Hitting, pinching, slapping, raping
insulting women based on their physical appearance, age, cast, colour
even the sex of the newborn.
34 babies are born in India every minute
and some studies say almost every woman goes through some kind of mistreatment or other.
This is universal
but they don't tell you why this problem exists at all
and that is where my PhD comes in.
I'm trying to find out why women go through disrespect and abuse during child birth
through similar stories of women and their midwives in India
and I find that these woman are powerless and their midwives over burdened
both victims
of a disrespectful birthing environment
and an insensitive policy environment that does not provide any room for respectful maternity care
leading to a lack of compassion.
So when I talk about this it actually impacts almost all woman who may decide to not give birth at all
due to the fear of birth something I did
or they might put themselves at risk choosing an elective cesarean section just to avoid this humiliation.
Respectful maternity care is fundamental and a human right
and as a midwife it's my duty to defend it.
So I am trying to make respectful maternity care a reality
because no woman deserves to be disrespected, abused, humiliated and violated
when she is giving birth.
Thank you.
