Parturient women (pregnant and birthing women) have rights! And they are under threat in many states, provinces, and countries. WoLF aligns itself with midwives and other caregivers who seek to support womens reproductive autonomy when it comes to childbearing. Objections to women’s efforts to exercise the right to informed consent and refusal in childbirth are usually couched in an assertion of the unborn’s right to life. When providers or lawmakers attempt to restrict women’s healthcare choices around childbirth—like the choice to refuse cesarean section, or the choice to give birth at home with a midwife—they often argue that birthing women don’t have the right to make choices that “put their baby at risk.” From a legal perspective, these assertions are problematic. Every person has the right to refuse medical procedures, even if they the procedure (for example, an organ donation) might save the life of another person. It is a violation of the birthing woman’s bodily integrity to force her to submit to unwanted medical treatment, even if doing so would save the baby’s life. More important, the reality of decision-making in childbirth is rarely, if ever, so clear. Every decision involves complicated short and long term risks and benefits. Nobody can guarantee a “good outcome” from a given decision, and stillbirth happens sometimes, no matter who is in control. Someone must weigh the unique risks and benefits of the decisions in a given birth, and have the final say in those decisions. That person must be the mother. An unborn baby is represented by the person who is most invested in its health and well-being. Nobody is more invested in the health and well-being of a being-born baby than the person who grew it under her heart, from her blood. The maternal-fetal dyad is best protected when the birthing mother is respected as a competent decision-maker for herself and her child. Laws that restrict women’s reproductive options don’t change their choices, but they do increase their risk of dying from those choices. Some women will choose to give birth at home, whether or not their healthcare system supports that choice as legitimate. When that choice is marginalized or driven underground, continuity of care is undermined, with predictably deadly results for women and babies. Reproductive healthcare maximizes safety and survival when it serves to support women, instead of control them. womensliberationfront.org humanrightsinchildbirth/right-to-life/
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 22:00:01 +0000