Silent suffering: the violation of women’s human rights during childbirth in South Africa

Abstract

Obstetric Violence (OV), an unrecognised and widespread type of gender-based violence (GBV), occurs when a woman's basic human rights are violated while she gives birth. This dissertation looks at OV in the South African context and how it developed from the discrimination and segregation brought about by colonialism and apartheid, and how this has created a health care system that still negatively impacts maternal health today. OV can occur in several different ways, including through physical abuse, verbal abuse, neglect, and through non-consensual medical treatment such as forced sterilization. Marginalized groups such as coloured women, lower socio-economic status women, and women living with HIV/AIDS are most affected by OV. This dissertation also identifies that OV violates many rights under the South African Constitution and other international and regional human rights instruments. International and regional frameworks like CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) and the Maputo Protocol provide a basis for states to be held accountable for the actions of their state (and non-state) actors. This dissertation also reviews the legislative developments in some Latin American countries that have criminalized OV. This dissertation makes recommendations for a multifaceted strategy to address OV, and these include legislative reform, raising awareness of OV among the general population, providing comprehensive education and training to all persons who will provide health care services to pregnant women, as well as creating effective mechanisms for complaints to be filed and for accountability to exist. This dissertation also identifies further research as being necessary to better understand the extent to which OV exists and the effects of OV on women over time, and to determine whether the interventions identified in this dissertation were/are successful in preventing OV.