The following acts executed by care providers are considered obstetric violence:
(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.
I mean, how incredible is that?? Seriously? Could it be any clearer? Medical personnel may not interfere in birth unless they are explicitly requested to do so. Okay, so it doesn't say that precisely, but that's the take-home message: When we want your help, we'll bloody well ask for it!
I'm not an idiot; I know perfectly well this would never, ever fly here in the US. (And truthfully, I doubt it's well-enforced in Venezuela-- but yay them for even codifying it!) It's all about liability and CYA and the almighty dollar. Maternal and child health come in way behind in terms of importance and influence-- still later comes any value placed on the childbirth experience, for mom or baby. Those of us who do value the experience-- who see it as a rite of passage, as seminal event in a woman's life, something to be honoured and empowered-- are accused of selfishness or derided as "hippies." Which brings me to another pertinent (and fabulous) blog post of recent vintage, here at The Truth About Traumatic Births, which succinctly and politely explains how every mother is entitled to frame her birth experience any way she pleases. One woman may view her cesarean as a life-saving God-send; another may see it (as, I confess, I do) as nothing short of brutalisation and near-death. Those of us who fall in the latter category are not horrible selfish people and evil mothers who placed our birth experiences over our children's wellbeing... but I digress.
