ABSTRACT
Obstetric violence is defined as dehumanizing treatment towards women in labor, which includes issues such as medicalized childbirth, carelessness and negligence, violation of reproductive rights, or the loss of autonomy and capacity to freely choose. Drawing from a qualitative study with low-income women and healthcare workers from Nairobi, Kenya, this chapter uses a feminist approach to explore the multiple voices embedded in maternal care, and especially how vulnerable women experience problematic care. The women described verbal and physical abuse, discrimination, neglect and abandonment, and unprofessional treatment from the healthcare providers. The healthcare workers described a health system that was weak, fragmented, deeply underfunded, and with poor policy support—which in turn created a context where the mistreatment of women seemed to be inevitable. We address the structural underpinnings and the colonial debris that shape this violence, and how these speak to questions of reproductive justice.
