Birth Rape

[apples and oranges]

What is "birth rape?"

If debates about childbirth weren't already incendiary enough, here's a phrase that's being debated online lately: "birth rape." It refers not to forced sexual contact, but to violations experienced during childbearing.

The phrase has been circulating on midwife and childbirth blogs for several years, but is starting to gain force. Here's how a blog devoted to the topic, Birth Trauma Truths, describes it:

"A vulnerable woman, who is powerless to leave the situation, is at times held down against her will, has strangers looking & touching at private parts of her body, perhaps without appropriate measures being taken to acknowledge her ownership of her body or to preserve her comfort levels. Perhaps she has fingers or instruments inserted without her consent, and sometimes against her consent, invading and crossing decent boundaries. She is fearful of what is happening to her and perhaps for the wellbeing of her baby, and receives no reassurance that either she or her child are ok. That is a violation, no matter how you look at it. Even IF this treatment is given with no malice and the intent of attempting to assist her with birthing her child, there is NEVER a reason to forgo common decencies that will enable her to maintain a role in the birth, some autonomy over her body, to be involved in the decision-making, to be informed about what they want to do BEFORE they do it."

Read more: http://jezebel.com/5632689/what-is-birth-rape?

Interesting. I had never heard of this concept before.