Abstract
This paper is part of a broader research on parents’ experiences of childbirth conducted by means of a collective case study that analyzed 30 childbirth reports - 15 written by women and 15 by men - published in personal blogs about gestation, childbirth, and parenthood experiences. This study aimed to investigate the experience of the so-called “obstetric violence” based on the reports of five mothers - the only ones whose reports referred to this phenomenon. The results show that the lack of support is a constitutive factor of the experience of obstetric violence, and that mothers dwelled on writing reports as a means to elaborate this traumatic experience. When routinely performed and without shared decision-making or psychological support, medical procedures such as episiotomy, anesthesia, and cesarean section represent a form of ritualization to keep the sexual representation of childbirth unconscious. Such ritualization leads to iatrogenesis in childbirth, harming the mother-child mental health.
Keywords:
Childbirth; Obstetric Violence; Trauma; Motherhood; Mother-child Health