When Violence Thrives in Silence: Highlighting Narratives of Women Survivors of Obstetric Violence in Alabama

This study explores the social phenomenon of maltreatment and abuse of women by medical systems and personnel at hospital-based facilities during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum periods. Recently, this underreported and hidden form of abuse has been coined "obstetric violence" (Sadler et al., 2016; Second Hemispheric Report on the Implementation of the Belém do Pará Convention, 2012). This three-article style dissertation explores the role of obstetric violence in women's lives from its origins to the present day, specifically in Alabama. Through a feminist, qualitative lens, reproductive justice theory guides this three-article dissertation purporting that all women have the human right to autonomy, the right to self-determination, and dignity and worth of a person. Each article-style paper reviews this work through the discipline of social work and provides relevance and implications for the profession. Article one provides a historical foundation and the inception of modern gynecology and obstetrics, focusing on the abuse of enslaved women to advance modern Medicine in Alabama. Article two is a secondary, qualitative study using the methodology of poetic inquiry to understand the lived-experiences of obstetric survivors across the State of Alabama. Article three is an exploratory, qualitative study utilizing virtual focus groups to understand the lived-experiences of survivors of obstetric violence across the State of Alabama. Each article supports the other with the primary theme of obstetric violence.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Alabama Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Beech, Haley Heckman

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Cheatham, Leah P.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Pryce, Josephine
• Noh, Hyunjin
• Payne, Nancy
• Horan, Holly

• Feminist Scholarship
• Obstetric Violence
• Poetic Inquiry
• Reproductive Justice Theory
• Social Work
• Violence Against Women

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US, English

Dc Identifier Other

1011111

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ir.ua.edu:123456789/13120