Author: Camilla Pickles & Kerigo Odada
Author title:
Camilla Pickles, Associate Professor of Biolaw, University of Durham, UK; Visiting Associate Professor of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa 
Kerigo Odada, LLD Candidate at the University of Pretoria, South Africa; Legal t Network Coordinator at MAMA Network 

Description: Pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period are profoundly transformative experiences. Sadly, however, due to broader sociopolitical pressures, care during this time often materialises in ways that strip women and birthing individuals of their autonomy and agency, leading to feelings of dehumanisation, and extensive and long-lasting physical and psychological harms. This approach to care is increasingly being recognised as obstetric violence. In a groundbreaking thematic report on a human-rights based approach to mistreatment in childbirth and obstetric violence, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women specifically earmarked voluntary and fully informed consent as integral to promoting autonomy during facility-based childbirth and thus ensuring respectful maternity care. 

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