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Dominican Republic
Arachu Castro & Virginia Savage
Obstetric violence, a human rights violation, encompasses various forms of mistreatment experienced by women giving birth in healthcare facilities. Within this framework, we conducted open-ended exit interviews with 43 women who had given birth at one of the two largest public maternity hospitals in the Dominican Republic. Their narratives revealed a disparity between scholarly definitions of obstetric violence and their own perceptions of receiving abusive care. Analysing obstetric violence as a form of reproductive governance, along with the concept of adaptive preference, helps to explain why most women endured and accepted the poor quality of care they received.
Arachu Castro
Violence against women in labour is a frequent occurrence in Latin America, as observed in my extensive ethnographic fieldwork across various countries in the region. This article, focusing on Mexico and the Dominican Republic, situates obstetric violence within the broader context of social exclusion and discrimination against women. It establishes links between maternal deaths and healthcare systems marked by a lack of continuity of care, inadequate accountability towards women, and the withholding of care. I argue that clinical staff adapt to the structural limitations of healthcare systems by failing to assume responsibility for the continuity of care each woman requires. This abdication of accountability is central to how health professionals navigate, tolerate, and perpetuate the system’s structure, ultimately creating the conditions for obstetric violence to occur. Finally, while documenting women’s suffering alone will not prevent obstetric violence, increasing its visibility through research can contribute to human rights-based advocacy, the monitoring of human rights standards, and the development of accountability measures within health systems to prevent such abuses.
