Obstetric Violence from the Contributions of Feminist Criticism and Biopolitics

Abstract

Since 2007 several Latin American countries have adopted legal regulations against obstetric violence. Progressively, this term has also been promoted by social movements in various parts of the world in order to denounce what many women understand as disrespectful and violent practices exercised by healthcare personnel during childbirth assistance. This article aims to provide a theoretical framework to help in understanding the complexity of the phenomenon called "obstetric violence" through the lens of biopolitics and feminist criticism. Through the concepts of "gender", "biopower" and "authoritative knowledge" the goal is to shed light on some of the tensions that the struggles for the possession of legitimized knowledge and the control of medical care in childbirth generate in modern obstetrics, negatively impacting on the lives of women, fetuses and babies.