Overview

Obstetric Violence and the Birthing Body: A Reading from Feminist Philosophy examines the phenomenon of violence against women and birthing subjects during medicalized birth from the viewpoint of diverse fields within feminist philosophy. The phenomenon of obstetric violence—violence and the dehumanizing treatment of laboring women at the hands of medical staff—affects women and birthing persons all over the world, with dreadful consequences. This book argues that obstetric violence is a distinct form of violence against women that cannot be adequately understood simply by labeling it as ""gender violence."" It demonstrates how violent obstetric practices have been normalized and provides practical guidance for those seeking to influence social policies and create structural change within women’s healthcare. Obstetric Violence and the Birthing Body will be of use to women everywhere, health providers, policy makers, and students and researchers in many branches of feminist philosophy as well as other academic disciplines including public health, human rights, welfare, sociology, midwifery, medical anthropology, medical ethics, and law.

Full Product Details

9781032964591

Table of Contents

Reviews

""This magnificent book demands that the reader rethink what birthing bodies and subjects are, and indeed what birth is. By exploring conceptions of birth as grotesque, erratic and uncertain it produces new insights into how birthing bodies are subjected to violence and shame. Brilliant, insightful and inspiring, this book speaks to the mind and the heart in finding new ways of restoring birthing to its rightful site as a act of awe."" Jonathan Herring, Professor of Law, University of Oxford; DM Wolfe-Clarendon Fellow in Law, Exeter College, Oxford. “Professor Cohen Shabot brings new depth of analysis to the universal experience of Obstetric Violence. Her powerful book outlines deeply held societal behavioral and existential conceptions of women and birthing persons that make violence against them normative. We can only change the structural violence of our societies through this understanding.” Annekathryn Goodman, Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, Reproductive Biology, Harvard Medical School, Director Strength & Serenity MGH Global Initiative to End Gender-Based Violence “This book delivers a critical feminist intervention on obstetric violence. Sara Cohen Shabot’s bold theoretical insight unsettles entrenched paradigms and illuminates birth as both a site of violence and horizon of possibility. A field-defining contribution that will resonate across disciplines.” Camilla Pickles, Associate Professor of Biolaw, Durham University

Author Information

Sara Cohen Shabot is Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department and Chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at The University of Haifa, Israel, specializing in feminist philosophy, phenomenology, and philosophies of the body. Her present research and publications address feminist philosophical perspectives on childbirth and the maternal embodied subject.

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