Toolbox for Perinatal Health Professionals
This toolbox aims to support health professionals, educators, researchers, and interdisciplinary teams working in perinatal settings through conceptual resources, evidence-based materials, reflective practices, and restorative approaches addressing the intersections between obstetric violence and perinatal mental health.
KNOWLEDGE & EVIDENCE
What is the relationship between obstetric violence and perinatal mental health?
We invite you to watch this short video dedicated to the book chapter “Obstetric violence and perinatal mental health: epistemic tensions, maternal voices and public health challenges”, by María Fernanda González Londra, Lucía Brienza, Ester Massó Guijarro and Pilar Jubani Roig.
Drawing on the main reflections developed in the chapter, the video explores how experiences of obstetric violence may affect women’s mental health during the perinatal period, beyond clinical diagnoses, and highlights the importance of incorporating women’s voices, experiences and knowledge into processes of recognition, care and reparation.
This perspective invites us to understand perinatal mental health more broadly, also taking into account the conditions in which care is provided during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period.
We invite you to watch the video and discover the chapter’s main ideas.
How can obstetric violence affect maternal mental health and newborn well-being?
Dr María Fernanda González, a researcher involved in the IPOV – RESPECTFUL CARE project, interviews Dr Marcela Gutiérrez, paediatrician, birth rights activist and founder of the Colombian Perinatal Mental Health Network.
The conversation explores how experiences of violence, mistreatment or dehumanisation during childbirth care may affect mothers’ mental health and may also have implications for the well-being and adaptation of the newborn.
The interview highlights the importance of adopting an integrated approach to perinatal care, in which the mother’s physical and mental health, the baby’s well-being, early bonding and respect for rights during childbirth are considered as interconnected dimensions.
We invite you to watch the full interview and discover Dr Marcela Gutiérrez’s perspective on an aspect of obstetric violence that remains insufficiently visible: its potential effects on maternal mental health and newborn well-being.