Welcome to The Reproductive Justice Story Project
By offering a platform for sharing stories, we hope to raise awareness of mistreatment & abuse at the hands of healthcare professionals during pregnancy, childbirth & postpartum, and while accessing other reproductive healthcare in Ontario.
We’re welcoming your stories of birth trauma, obstetric or gynaecological violence, pregnancy & infant loss, abortion, permanent contraception, fertility care, postpartum complications and more, with the end goal of influencing change across the province.
If you have a personal story to share about disrespectful, disempowering, frustrating, unprofessional or negligent care you've experienced in recent years, consider sharing it for the Community Story Blog.
Our next planned initiative, an Ontario-wide birth trauma survey, is currently in the works. The results of our independent St. Joe's Toronto Family Birthing Centre patient feedback survey are coming very soon. Stay tuned for updates!
content note: the community story blog contains difficult subject matter that may be triggering for some readers. please practice self-care while reading
As patients, we are the authority on what is best for our families, but the culture of reproductive healthcare today often deprives us of the right to make informed choices about our own bodies.
We know that when we are excluded from conversations about our care - especially during some of the most vulnerable and unpredictable moments of our lives - negative feelings about our experience can linger long after we've left the hospital.
We know there is more to a positive birth experience than a healthy baby. Obstetric care must be patient-centred, trauma-informed, and evidence-based. Every pregnant and birthing person has the right to dignity, respect, compassion and autonomy during all stages of pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum.
We also know that the absence of respectful and inclusive care disproportionately affects marginalized communities including Indigenous, Black, people of colour, young people, people living on low incomes, with disabilities, diverse gender expression or presentation, less conventional family structures, mental health or trauma histories, and many others.
Though the medical community is slow to change, we believe that change can happen if we all speak up together!
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![We've said it before & we'll say it again: obstetric violence is gender-based violence, period.
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. "Obstetric violence is institutional, gender-based violence, suffered by pregnant [people] at the hands of healthcare personnel.
In a 2007 law, Venezuela said it includes dehumanised treatment, abuse of medication, and “the appropriation of the body and reproductive processes of women by health personnel… bringing with it loss of autonomy and the ability to decide freely about their bodies and sexuality.” In 2014, the World Health Organisation described disrespectful and abusive care during childbirth – including physical and verbal abuse, refusals of care and medication, and coercive or unconsented medical procedures – as human rights violations." The above quotation and particular wording on this image are from the following article (see the project facebook page for the link) :
How Italian women are organising against ‘obstetric violence’
by ALESSANDRA CICALI 4 January 2018
https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/alessandra-cicali/how-italian-women-are-organising-against-obstetric-violence](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593fbf68d2b857a8ca81d418/5a7763afbff200287e18c460/5ad3e202dc3f5cf04e4681e4/1523835431598/)
!["The person giving birth is the person best positioned to weigh their needs and options in combination with the needs of the unborn child in whom they are investing their womb, labour, and life force. In the complex ethical dynamic where there are two hearts (or more!) in one body – the heart that beats for them all, is the deciding heart. Shared decision-making is an admirable ambition for [care provider]-patient communication. Everybody wants to give birth with a provider they can trust. But in the event of a disagreement about what to do at a given moment in a birth, somebody holds the authority to make the final decision. Under the human right to refuse medical treatment, that person is the patient"
more at: www.humanrightsinchildbirth.org/right-to-refuse-medical-treatment/
If you've experienced disrespectful or abusive treatment from healthcare providers anywhere in Ontario during pregnancy, childbirth, or postpartum - including pregnancy & infant loss and abortion - consider sharing your story on our blog. Link in bio.
#bodilyautonomy #humanrights #childbirth #medical #righttorefuse #birthjustice #socialjustice #birthtrauma #trauma #ptsd #healing #obstetricviolence #ontario #canada](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593fbf68d2b857a8ca81d418/5a7763afbff200287e18c460/5ab91a9c28bbc11e3f52c75d/1522080430066/)
![Last month, the World Health Organization launched their new guidelines for care during childbirth. "The guideline contains 56 evidence-based recommendations detailing the clinical and non-clinical care that is needed throughout labour and immediately afterwards for [birthers] and for newborns. One of the key new recommendations in this guideline recognizes that every labour is unique and that they do not all progress at the benchmark rate of 1 cm/hour of cervical dilatation. This benchmark rate has been used for decades and on a partograph alerts the birth attendant that labour is progressing abnormally when it is not achieved. In recognizing that this rate of dilatation may be unrealistic for some [birthing people], the guideline recommends that this factor alone should not be a routine indication for medical intervention to accelerate labour or expedite birth. WHO anticipates that this new recommendation will help to substantially reduce the growing rate of unnecessary caesarean sections that has currently reached an epidemic proportion." .
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The second two infographics have been edited for inclusive language. Feel free to repost! View the originals and read the report here: http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/intrapartum-care/en/
#worldhealthorganization #childbirth #pregnancy #birthstories #birthjustice #reproductivejustice #healthcare #csection #VBAC #intersectionalfeminism #evidencebased #patientcentred #informedconsent](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593fbf68d2b857a8ca81d418/5a7763afbff200287e18c460/5ab2b923aae294f31fdce2f3/1521662274659/)
![Yes, this is still a problem. Yes, even here in Canada. According to canada.ca, the infant mortality rate in some Indigenous communities is more than 3x the national average. "Inequalities in maternity care occur at the systemic and societal level, around problems including poverty, nutrition, and access to healthcare. Inequality and discrimination also play out in maternity care at the individual level, when [birthers] are disrespected, not listened to, or otherwise treated as “less than” by their care providers or others involved in their healthcare. [People] of color are at significantly increased risk of dying in childbirth, and of losing their babies around birth. This inequality plays out in global maternal mortality rates, and within developed nations in mortality discrepancies between racial-ethnic groups. In countries across Europe, foreign-born and immigrant women are at significantly increased risk of maternal and perinatal mortality and low birth weight babies. In the USA, African-American women receive more cesarean sections than any other racial group and are 3-4 times more likely to die in childbirth than other Americans.
The human right to equal treatment means that each person should be given the same options and support in maternity care as other people, and not stigmatized on the basis of personal characteristics. This right is violated when people are treated differently, without an evidence-based clinical reason for that distinction [...] All pregnant people have the right to dignity, informed consent and respectful support in childbirth, regardless of the “risk category” in which they are perceived to belong." www.humanrightsinchildbirth.org/right-to-equal-treatment/
#birthjustice #reproductivejustice #birthtrauma #obstetricviolence #dignity #respect #informedconsent #informedchoice #evidencebased #equality #antioppression #systemicracism #colonialviolence #infantmortality #indigenous #immigrant #humanrights #childbirth #pregnancy #maternity #mujer #healthcare #ontario #canada](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593fbf68d2b857a8ca81d418/5a7763afbff200287e18c460/5ab121db3fde6a3a18e0b274/1521557994050/)
![Pregnancy & birth can be tough - even for birthers without a history of trauma. "Fortunately, [healthcare providers] don’t need the admission of abuse to employ strategies developed for survivors." Here are some tips for care providers from the AWHONN Blog. What else would you add to the list? -Explain as much as you can in advance -Always start with asking permission -Go slowly with everything you do -Limit vaginal exams -Minimize people in the room
from "PROVIDING CARE FOR SURVIVORS OF SEXUAL ABUSE DURING CHILDBIRTH"
by Tasha Poslaniec August 24, 2017 https://awhonnconnections.org/2017/08/24/providing-care-for-survivors-of-sexual-abuse-during-childbirth/
#birthtrauma #birthrape #birthjustice #birthstories #pregnancy #postpartum #ptsd #survivor #mentalhealth #obstetricviolence #reproductivejustice #healthcare #Ontario #Canada](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593fbf68d2b857a8ca81d418/5a7763afbff200287e18c460/5aaea1dfaae29491b24e34a7/1521394147262/)
