Obstetric Violence: An Epistemic Repair of the Construct

As a form of academic activism this paper proposes an epistemic redress of obstetric violence by arguing for a more birther-defined conceptualization of the construct, in order to further the agenda of reproductive and social justice. Since the term was first used in the early 2000s in Latin America, the construct has evolved, and contemporary understandings of obstetric violence note it as a complex and multifaceted phenomenon with various configurations of analysis depending on the stakeholder that is discussing it. While the ontology of obstetric violence has been grappled with, the most ubiquitous challenge that is foregrounded in this paper is that of its conceptualization, specifically its epistemic leanings and origins. Drawing primarily on Fricker's framework of epistemic injustice, particularly hermeneutical injustice, I argue that current interpretations of obstetric violence are epistemically tenuous, and I posit that any understanding of obstetric violence must include the subjective and lived experience of all birthing persons, leading to a more socially and epistemically fair understanding of the construct.