It is a recurring issue in facilities around the globe per World Health Organization studies, and can have serious consequences for mother and child.
Their studies demonstrate that women giving birth in medical facilities experience disrespectful, abusive, and/or neglectful treatment frequently and globally.
This procedure was supposedly performed to increase the husband's future sexual pleasure and often caused long-term pain and discomfort for the woman.
There is no proof that such a practice was widespread in North America,[13][14] but mentions of it frequently appear in studies about episiotomy in certain American countries such as Brazil.
This study shows that community and health system reforms can help change and reshape norms in which women are mistreated during childbirth.
Sundari Ravindran set out to quantitatively determine the prevalence of abuse during childbirth in the Varanasi district of northern India through the use of a questionnaire.
Two rural blocks in the Varanasi district with high rates of institutional deliveries were the focus of the study, with subjects selected randomly from the women who lived in the area.
Furthermore, 8.5% of patients reported being neglected or abandoned, 5.6% experienced non-confidential care, and 4.9% faced humiliation due to a lack of cleanliness.
[23] While global maternal health research and advocacy has brought recent awareness to obstetric violence, historians have noted historical examples.
In the United States of America, historians attest that it began during slavery, where enslaved women were physically exploited and experimented on by Antebellum physicians looking to advance the fields of obstetrics and gynaecology.
[25] Coined by activist Fannie Lou Hamer, Mississippi appendectomies involved Black and other women of color being sterilized without informed consent, knowledge and without valid medical reason.
[26][27] Researchers confirm that hysterectomies and tubal ligations were given to poor black women by medical residents allowed to "practice" surgical skills.
Black mothers of all socioeconomic statuses, including Serena Williams, have detailed experiences of being ignored or dismissed while reporting signs of complications or expressing concerns during their pregnancies[28][29][30].
A study conducted during the 1970s found that an estimated one-quarter of Indigenous American women of childbearing age were sterilized in Indian Health Service hospitals.