"Important and historic". These are the adjectives with which Ibone Olza , psychiatrist, perinatal and director of the European Institute of Perinatal Mental Health , defines the report "rights-based Approach to human abuse and violence against women in reproductive health services, with special emphasis on labor and violence, obstetric", elaborated by the united nations and in the recognition of the violence obstetric.
"The report elaborates on the causes of abuse and violence , recognizes that the problem is structural and points to the poor working conditions of the care professionals to the delivery . Also desculpabiliza mothers, validates their experiences, qualifies as 'torture' to perform a cesarean section or an episiotomy without consent and describes the forms of abuse most common in childbirth, especially the blackmail and how it is minimized or invisible its consequences", says the expert.
The Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences UN, Dubravka Šimonović , presented the past month of July the members of the General Assembly the report. The document constitutes the first recognition of the maximum international organization of the existence, and the consequences for the mother and her children from the violence, obstetric , and proposes to implement "an approach based on human rights to the different forms of abuse and violence suffered by women in reproductive health services".
The clinical psychologist Patricia Fernandez qualify the report as "necessary and encouraging", and highlighted especially the use of the concept "violence obstetric" and the fact that the rapporteur of the UN are referring to it as a " human rights violation ". Fernández argues that "to name it is necessary to develop the consciences of those who attend and legislate".
The lawyer specialized in sexual and reproductive health Francisca Fernández Guillén , for its part, points out that the Un report reinforces its belief that there is that " follow visibilizando violence, obstetric and addressing the injustices with all the mechanisms at our disposal". For the jurist, the incorporation of the concept by the UN "implies a recognition" to all those women to share the witness of your personal history have made visible to "what's up a short time ago were mere anecdotes " for the civil society.
"the recognition of The concept far exceeds the question of the terminology. Of a part, because it makes visible the gender bias that dominates the attention paid to women in the health services and, on the other, because it situates it in an international context in the replicate models of reproductive health care and sexual infantilizan and ignore the rights of mothers as patients and as human beings. In many cases, of the form protocol", he argues.
According to Ibone Olza, the report raises issues "particularly relevant" to the mental health professionals that will cater to the mothers who suffer the sequelae of psychological violence, obstetric. Among them, the psychiatrist points out the need " to ensure redress for the victims of abuse and violence ", as contained in the first of the recommendations of the report (article 75), which urges States to "adopt laws and appropriate policies to combat and prevent such violence, prosecute those responsible and provide redress and compensation to the victims."
The role of the professionalin Addition, according to Olza, the document includes claims classic associations of users as The Labor is Ours , who claim the necessary "transparency in obstetrics". Specifically, article 81 of the report, the UN calls on states to " supervise the health centres and collect and publish data on the percentage of c-sections, vaginal deliveries, episiotomies, and other reproductive health services ".
Patricia Fernandez, for his part, emphasizes that the report is oriented towards a "non-paternalistic, in that it gives weight to the consent adequately informed as a human right and protection, and not as a procedure or safe havens". In that sense, for the clinical psychologist, the document allows you to move towards interventions "more understated and consensual" and toward a assistance that places a "first-person" to the woman in labour: "This enables us to move towards professional relationships more human , you require to see the woman in all its dimensions, and that foster dialogue and the respect to their needs n visions paternalistic and hierarchical".
finally, Maria Emilia Dip , clinical psychologist, Mental Health Program, Perinatal Psychiatry Service of the Hospital Vall d'hebron of Barcelona, believes that the report will also have a great impact on the health professionals , since in his view the violence obstetric "is also a symptom of the abuse that you have the big institutions towards the professionals."
"Many practitioners, to the institutional abuse that they suffer, are saved in identifying with those who were abused and in turn abusing clients. It is essential that institutions begin to take more care to the professionals who are at the foot of the cannon to break that chain of abuse that goes from the institution to the professional and that ends up impacting on mothers. We are all wounded in the face of this abuse of each other. It is a constant project in the patient's own abuse that we suffer the professionals from the institution," he concludes.
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Date Of Update: 12 September 2019, 20:01
