‘It’s Women who Suffer': A Case Study in Silencing Obstetric Violence in Australia

In May 2024, the NSW State Parliament Select Committee Inquiry into Birth Trauma handed down a landmark report on birth trauma following a year-long inquiry. However, the Final Report omitted the term ‘obstetric violence', and the Committee refused to include a finding that some instances of birth trauma amounted to gender-based violence. This article grapples with the erasure of obstetric violence in what is otherwise a significant step towards addressing maternity care issues in Australia. Taking up intersectional feminist approaches to obstetric violence and Reproductive Justice frameworks, I argue that at present, obstetric violence is an overlooked form of gender-based violence in feminist theory and reproductive healthcare in Australia. Connecting historic and contemporary issues in obstetric violence to international debates and theory, I unpack the arguments present in the Inquiry, which rejected the concept's use in Australia. These arguments included: (1) definitional disputes over ‘obstetrics' and ‘violence'; (2) concepts of medical benevolence and (3) and finally a contention based on ideas of woman-centred care. Critiquing these arguments, I present a case for the importance of obstetric violence’s ability for “epistemic rupture” in Australia (Chadwick [2021: “Breaking the Frame: Obstetric Violence and Epistemic Rupture.” Agenda 35 (3): 104-115. https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2021.1958554]).