To not understand the assault/internals threads?

[GingerJulep]

I've never had one so am really struggling to understand how so many women on here (NOT aimed specifically at the other poster on this page, there are lots in different sections!) manage to have internal examinations before/during/after birth that they say they didn't consent to/asked to be stopped?

I mean that physically, don't they have the option to just shut legs/take feet out of stirrups/kick HCP in face?

Nearest I've ever come (so far, lucky me!) was someone trying to take blood suddenly... I made an automatic physical reaction (big flinch/jump) and they simply couldn't do it until we'd had a quick cat.

So, how much more difficult is it to avoid/stop internal exams if you really want to IYSWIM?

Oh and I echo the bit about MOVE marginalising men. It also marginalises women who haven't given birth, but may be concerned about this due to previous experience of some description. Don't forget that internals can be given for other fertility related reasons too and thats also relevant.

We could say in the description that it's for everyone who wants to stand up to obstetric violence.

Anyone got any other suggestions.

The guestbook would just be for people to write their story, so that it can go straight up without having to join anything and they can remain anonymous to anything they write on the forum. I definitely would be removing anything that wasn't there to tell stories, the forum is going to be for anything else.

PINS is the PGP charity. Keep the charity suggestions coming.

Fantastic progress!

I am in awe of the energy and power your people manage to bring!

Will ponder acronyms...

Doesn't mean anything but

DARIC? Dignity and respect in child birth....

Or HARIC Humanity and respect in child birth...

you people...not your people..

Hmm the trouble with an acronym using obstetric violence in particular is there are only so many words with OV in in English. I still think NOVA might work it maybe it's best not to use an acronym, but maybe have a catchy title, like Outrage! have.

Push! to end obstetric violence

...?

RTB messaged me Say No to Obstetric Violence.

Obstetric Violence Action OVA - nice little reproductive theme going on there.

However, I'm a bit worried about obstetric because it may be misinterpreted as being directed toward obstetrics, the specialty, and obstetricians. I think it needs to be clearly inclusive of midwives.

Birth violence?

I like ova
Perhaps you could make clear on the website that it includes midwives. They seem to be the perpetrators 70% of the time on these posts.

I think the key should be in the description, the name is to sound catchy. What does everyone else think?

What about assault during a routine midwife appointment? Birth wouldn't work for that, but it would be an experience within the scope of the campaign. (Apologies for nitpicking, I'm just keen for the name to be clear and inclusive of all experience.)

And I certainly don't think Birth Violence Action or Association or anything else with an A (BVA) would be advisable because it would be a nanosecond before some idiot thought of pronouncing the acronym as B-vuh

I've been trying to come up with something with 'consent' in, because it echoes the broadly accepted idea of consent to sex (bodily autonomy), and so kind of alludes to similarities between the experience of assault during sex and birth without the difficult term 'birth rape'.

I'll sleep on it.

Agreed courgette

I like OVA! People will remember it and it's easy enough to point out that obstetrics includes midwives.

It also gives a platform to specifically campaign for OV (see, we already have an acronym!) to become a crime, as in Venezuela.

Hello folks, I sent a link to this thread to the Birth Trauma Association on Friday and they've sent back some useful stuff.

Their press officer Lucy Joplin is going to tweet this and they're going to put it on their website as a news item.

They've also recommended that we contact Elizabeth Prochaska at Birthrights, who is a lawyer who is campaigning on human rights issues around childbirth.

I think that, although Mumsnet is undoubtedly powerful (the Bounty issue shows us that) that we'd have a louder voice if all of us who are campaigning about this are working together. Forging links with groups who are already active in the field can only help.

What about using violation rather than violence? It implies going against consent and not everyone's experiences are just physically violent but emotionally distressing.

Yup liking OVA but also very much in favour of the violation over violence. You can be violated without there being the need for the force or aggression implied by the word violence.

Great news about BTA! I'm just waiting on a name and I'm ready to go with a website.

Maternity Rights!
Strapline: Campaign for proper consent in antenatal and maternity wards

I like it! It says it all. Does everyone agree?

Quick potential blurb... criticism welcomed:

Maternity Rights!
The Campaign for proper consent in Antenatal and Maternity Wards

About
Maternity Rights! is a website set up to tackle the biggest Wrong in maternity wards. A lack of respect for proper consent from women either before, during or after they give birth.

Whilst we appreciate that giving birth can be sometimes unpredictable, difficult and traumatic, the experience for many women is being made even worst by the lack of total respect and involvement in their own treatment from those supposed to be providing them with care. Even the most difficult birth can be made a lot easier and less distressing with proper communication and engagement in decision between staff and patients.

The website was founded after concerns raise by a sizeable number of women on Mumsnet about how they felt violated, abused and mistreated by midwives and obstetricians. Many shared stories with a similar pattern, about how they had been subjected to various procedures without consent and how requests to stop had been actively and wilfully ignored.

This is unethical, immoral, insensitive, and worst of all unlawful.

This campaign's aim is to promote to women and health care providers alike what constitutes consent and what does not. It aims to help women understand what their rights are and when they may have been broken. It aims to force hospitals to acknowledge the problem is widespread and institutionalised. It hopes to get government to recognise the needs of women as being unrecognised and not fully protected within existing law by the introduction of a new criminal offence of obstetric violence.

We aim to end the thousands of women who are suffering in silence from a preventable trauma.