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In a landmark effort to amplify respectful maternity care and challenge entrenched obstetric norms, IPOV Respectful Care will host a special book launch and conversation on Saturday, 21 June 2025 at 10:30 AM in Barcelona. The event celebrates the publication of Bien que te gustó: Manifiesto para partos insumisos, the urgent debut by Julieta Saulo, published by Penguin Random House.
Julieta Saulo—social psychologist, certified puericulturist, doula, mother, feminist, and one of Argentina’s foremost experts on obstetric violence and respectful birth—asks a piercing question that runs through every page of her manifesto:
Is it possible to give birth and be born in a respectful way in a macho world?
Her answer emerges from her own experiences as a woman, mother, and activist. What began as a personal quest has become an “intimate, powerful, and non-negotiable order of battle,” aimed at shattering one of society’s most pernicious mandates: that women must birth quietly, obediently, and voicelessly—“forced to break themselves in order to be born.”
Bien que te gustó is provocatively titled. Saulo reclaims a phrase all too commonly heard in maternity wards—“You liked the sex, and this is your punishment. Pray you find redemption in this suffering”—and transforms it into a tool for liberation. This book is intended to:
- Spread the word about dignified, consent-based birth
- Build solidarity so no one feels alone, crazy, or “overreacting” again
- Warn others that it’s never too late for births—and thus newborn lives—to be loving and pleasurable
“More than healing,” Saulo writes, “this book is, like all disruptive and counter-hegemonic works, a weapon of battle.”
From the prologue by Soledad Barruti:
“Este libro nos cobija y nos expulsa, nos enfrenta de cara a la crudeza del sinsentido, la violencia sorda y naturalizada que recae sobre las personas gestantes y las niñas y los niños en el momento de su nacimiento.
Este libro nos recorre, nos incomoda y da voz a quienes quieren parir de otra forma y a quienes queremos acompañar amorosamente, respetuosamente, desde un lugar secundario, cediendo el protagonismo y el poder a las que son las verdaderas protagonistas, las mujeres.”
Hosted at Biblioteca El Carmel–Juan Marsé (Murtra 135–145), the morning’s programme will feature a dialogue between Saulo and Prof. Patrizia Quattrocchi, Principal Investigator of the IPOV Respectful Care project and medical anthropologist at the University of Udine. Together they will explore how coercive obstetric practices—from non-consensual interventions to routine episiotomies—can be dismantled and replaced with models centered on informed consent, emotional support, and community-driven care.
Whether you are a healthcare professional, doula, researcher, expectant parent, or simply committed to reproductive justice, join us for a morning of insight, solidarity, and collective empowerment.
Event Details
- What: Presentation of Bien que te gustó: Manifiesto para partos insumisos, with Julieta Saulo in conversation with Prof. Patrizia Quattrocchi
- When: Saturday, 21 June 2025, 10:30 AM
- Where: Biblioteca El Carmel–Juan Marsé, Murtra 135–145, Barcelona
- Admission: Free and open to all