Breaking the frame : obstetric violence and epistemic rupture

dc.contributor.authorChadwick, Rachelle Joy
dc.contributor.emailrachelle.chadwick@up.ac.zaen_US
dc.date.accessioned2022-06-22T12:34:49Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.description.abstractThe concept of ‘obstetric violence’ has emerged as an important legal and activist tool in the global quest for humane, equitable, and respectful maternal and intrapartum care. Over the last decade or so, the term has been elaborated as a legal concept in several countries of the Global South and has travelled across transnational boundaries, with scholars from diverse regions adopting the framework. In this paper, I argue that the term obstetric violence is not just a mode of description or a legal concept, but that it constitutes an epistemic intervention. By naming normalised modes of harm and violation as violence, this conceptual vocabulary challenges normative conceptions of pregnancy and birth. By rejecting the normalisation of reproductive oppression, the language of obstetric violence also constitutes a refusal of epistemic frames that silence, diminish, erase, and devalue alternative and embodied forms of reproductive knowledge and agency. I also argue that we need to consider and conceptualise obstetric violence not just as gender violence but as a specific form of violence against reproductive subjects. This means grappling with what makes this form of violence distinctive. It also means considering a broader entanglement of forces that work to coerce/constrain reproductive subjects beyond the scope of gender or the boundaries of ‘women’. Finally, I explore how Afro-feminist, decolonial, and queer challenges advance the focus on obstetric violence as violence against reproductive subjects, offering new directions that reiterate the epistemic rupturing potential of this conceptual apparatus.en_US
dc.description.departmentSociologyen_US
dc.description.embargo2023-03-06
dc.description.librarianhj2022en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThe National Research Foundation (NRF) and the University of Pretoria.en_US
dc.description.urihttps://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ragn20en_US
dc.identifier.citationRachelle Chadwick (2021) Breaking the frame: Obstetric violence and epistemic rupture, Agenda, 35:3, 104-115, DOI: 10.1080/10130950.2021.1958554.en_US
dc.identifier.issn1013-0950 (print)
dc.identifier.issn2158-978X (online)
dc.identifier.other10.1080/10130950.2021.195855
dc.identifier.urihttps://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/85902
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherRoutledgeen_US
dc.rights© 2021 R. Chadwick. This is an electronic version of an article published in Agenda, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 104-115, 2021. doi : 10.1080/10130950.2021.195855. Agenda is available online at : http://www.tandfonline.comloi/ragn20.en_US
dc.subjectObstetric violenceen_US
dc.subjectReproductive oppressionen_US
dc.subjectAfro-feminismen_US
dc.subjectReproductive subjectivityen_US
dc.subjectEpistemic violenceen_US
dc.subjectReproductive violenceen_US
dc.titleBreaking the frame : obstetric violence and epistemic ruptureen_US
dc.typePostprint Articleen_US

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