Obstetric violence within students� rite of passage: The reproduction of the obstetric subject and its racialised (m)other

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dc.contributor.authorvan der Waal, Rodante
dc.contributor.authorMitchell, Veronica
dc.contributor.authorBozalek, Vivienne
dc.date.accessioned2022-02-16T08:11:07Z
dc.date.available2022-02-16T08:11:07Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.description.abstractBuilding on the work of Mbembe (2019) and Silva (2007), we theorise how the obstetric institution can still be considered fundamentally modern, that is, entangled with colonialism, slavery, bio- and necropolitics and patriarchal subjectivity. We argue that the modern obstetric subject (doctor or midwife) representing the obstetric institution engulfs the (m)other in a typically modern way as othered, racialised, affectable and outerdetermined, in order to constitute itself in terms of self-determination and universal reason. While Davis-Floyd (1987) described obstetric training as a rite of passage into a technocratic model of childbirth, we argue that students� rite of passage is not merely an initiation into a technological model of childbirth. The many instances of obstetric violence and racism in their training make a more fundamental problem visible, namely that students come of age within obstetrics through the violent appropriation of the (m)other. We amplify students� curricular encounters in two colonially related geopolitical spaces, South Africa and the Netherlands, and in two professions, obstetric medicine and midwifery, to highlight global systemic tendencies that push students to cross ethical, social and political boundaries towards the (m)other they are trained to care for. The embedment of obstetric violence in their rite of passage ensures the reproduction of the modern obstetric subject, the racialised (m)other, and institutionalised violence worldwide.en_US
dc.identifier.citationvan der Waal, R. et al. (2021). Obstetric violence within students� rite of passage: The reproduction of the obstetric subject and its racialised (m)other. Agenda, 35 (3) ,36-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2021.1958553en_US
dc.identifier.issn2158-978X
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2021.1958553
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10566/7265
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUNISA Pressen_US
dc.subjectObstetric violenceen_US
dc.subjectObstetric racismen_US
dc.subjectObstetric and midwifery trainingen_US
dc.subjectStudentsen_US
dc.subjectColonialismen_US
dc.titleObstetric violence within students� rite of passage: The reproduction of the obstetric subject and its racialised (m)otheren_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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