{"id":736,"date":"2020-09-17T21:37:08","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T21:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/?p=736"},"modified":"2021-09-20T23:30:13","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T23:30:13","slug":"when-gynecologists-gaslight-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/when-gynecologists-gaslight-women\/","title":{"rendered":"When gynecologists gaslight women"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u017dK, 17. 9. 2020<\/em><\/p>\n

From the UK to Ukraine, women are forced to endure traumatic reproductive health procedures without adequate pain relief because their pain \u201cis not possible\u201d or not important enough to prevent. In some cases this leads to torn uteruses and PTSD.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what happens when you like men too much.\u201d These words were spoken by a Zagreb doctor to a young woman during a surgical abortion. The woman then had her womb scraped without anesthetic, while the surgeon joked with his medical team about her sex life.<\/p>\n

Her devastating testimony is recorded in a complaint to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right To Health<\/a> by the Croatian Parents\u2019 Rights organization RODA<\/a>. The organization invited women to submit their experiences of enduring reproductive healthcare without anesthetic under the campaign banner \u201cBreaking The Silence\u201d (#Prekinimo\u0160utnju). In the space of a weekend, they received 400 handwritten submissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stories involved women who had biopsies on their uterus, cervix or vagina without anesthetic,\u201d RODA\u2019s Head of Reproductive Rights Daniela Drandic told me over the phone. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere were stories of women who had been through medically assisted fertility treatments and had their eggs removed without anesthetic. Women being sutured after childbirth, having their placenta manually removed, and surgical abortions or miscarriages, all without anesthetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some shocking cases, Drandic explained, \u201cwomen were offered a shot of hard liquor before a procedure to make it easier.\u201d One woman was scolded by her doctor while having samples taken from her reproductive organs. He said: \u201cyou didn\u2019t cry while having sex, so shut up now.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the reality of \u201cobstetric violence\u201d in Europe<\/a>. From the UK to Ukraine, women are failed by the medical establishment and forced to endure procedures relating to their reproductive health without adequate pain relief. In some cases, the women\u2019s experiences led to further complications such as torn uteruses, and PTSD.<\/p>\n

Across the Adriatic Sea in Italy, birth activist and co-founder of Obstetric Violence Observation In Italy \u2013 or OVOItalia<\/a> \u2013 Elena Skoko has collected similar stories via the campaign Mothers Have A Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over Skype, Skoko told me \u201cmany gynecological procedures are done without pain relief or the anesthetic is not working properly and women are not believed when they complain. Other times, as in childbirth, pain relief is forced on women. Women\u2019s point of views [are] not taken into account when it comes to their experiences and to the care they need or want in maternity and childbirth. They are infantilized and made to feel inferior, which puts their life and the life of their babies at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

OVOItalia has collected stories from women experiencing verbal abuse and even physical assault while in labor. One common technique called the Kristella Maneuver (the applying of pressure to the uterus to assist in vaginal birth), OVOItalia co-founder Alessandra Battisti described to me as \u201cvery traumatic for women because they do not expect it. The women feel they can\u2019t breathe and many times they have broken ribs.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE LAST ACCEPTABLE FORM OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN<\/strong><\/p>\n

As with Croatia\u2019s \u201cBreaking the Silence\u201d, OVOItalia invited women to submit their testimonials of obstetric violence, including abuse during childbirth. They then conducted a nationwide survey to gather data on women\u2019s experiences of reproductive healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur campaign is the first time in Italy so many women have talked about their personal experiences of childbirth,\u201d Battisti told me over Skype. \u201cWomen used to talk only in closed spaces among a few friends. There was not a public speech about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Skoko, this silence was, in part, \u201cbecause we didn\u2019t have a discourse around this form of violence. Women, mothers, activists, researchers \u2014 they knew what they were talking about but it was very difficult to frame this experience of traumatic birth. Then in 2006, Venezuela made a law on gendered violence and they called this \u2018obstetric violence\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what is behind what US writer Elisa Albert<\/a> calls \u201cthe last acceptable form of violence against women\u201d? Why are women forced to endure painful and upsetting procedures without anesthetic? And why are women experiencing such unnecessary pain and trauma in the delivery room?<\/p>\n

\u201cFirstly it\u2019s a multi-generational problem that has been going on for as long as hospitals have existed,\u201d Drandic explained. \u201cSo when a woman says to her mum or sister or friend that she had a painful procedure, the response she gets is that this is just the way it is done. Secondly it\u2019s a culture of reproductive healthcare that\u2019s offered to women. We\u2019ve had stories of trainee doctors questioning why women aren\u2019t given some kind of pain relief and the response is always that\u2019s just the way we do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it has a lot to do with the cultural idea that women have to suffer in order to be worthy,\u201d she continued. \u201cTo be worthy of being mothers, to be worthy of being women, to be worthy of being anything. It\u2019s a woman\u2019s job, right? To deal with pain. That\u2019s the idea we need to be challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slovakian activist Zuzana Kriskova, who co-authored the report Women Mothers Bodies One<\/a> and Two<\/a>, agreed. \u201cThe rights to make decisions on your own body is not something you are taught from infancy,\u201d she told me over Skype. \u201cWomen are taught to behave in a pre-approved way \u2014 not to provoke or be emotional. There\u2019s an image of the good mother who sacrifices herself for her baby, and the pain of women is seen as good for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Alessandra Battisti, the causes of obstetric violence can also be explained by a refusal to believe women when they talk about their lived experience \u2014 especially when it comes to pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same pattern that we observe with any other forms of violence against women,\u2019 Battisti told me. \u201cWomen are considered to be exaggerating. When women say they feel pain, as after a c-section or episiotomy, the doctors tell them \u2018no you are not in pain\u2019. People think it\u2019s only the woman\u2019s view, and the stereotype that women tell things which are not true is still very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kriskova reflected this analysis, telling me \u201cmale doctors are seen as having the knowledge and the knowledge that women have of their own bodies is seen as not reliable or acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

Sian Norris<\/strong><\/p>\n

 
\nNote:
\nThe article was originally published at the News Mavens web, however, it is no more available.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u017dK, 17. 9. 2020 From the UK to Ukraine, women are forced to endure traumatic reproductive health procedures without adequate pain relief because their pain \u201cis not possible\u201d or not important enough to prevent. In some cases this leads to torn uteruses and PTSD. \u201cThis is what happens when you like men too much.\u201d These […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":755,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions\/755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/odz.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}