Parties that support the government want to eliminate the concept of obstetric violence. European ones start waking up, says Carla Santos in an interview.
The law on Rights in pregnancy and childbirth was approved just over three months ago, but It can fall This Friday.
The parties that support the government, CDS-PP and PSD, want eliminate the concept of obstetric violence.
The two parties intend to revoke the law which, according to the PSD, is “excessively lato and undesirably vacant ”, Also arguing that its application “could result in the creation of an unacceptable stigma on doctors and health professionals, even encouraging undesirable and dangerous defensive medical practices”.
Diogo Ayres de Campos, director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Hospital Santa Maria, stressed in what this is a “vast concept”.
Correct, not fall
The Observatory of Obstetric Violence in Portugal (OVO Pt) thinks the law will be revoked.
A law that, underlines Carla Santos, Nor is it in force. It was approved on March 31 but was never applied in practice: “The law could fall alone if no one else took it.” CDs and PSD want to revoke to “make sure no one then takes the law to approve it.”
In an interview with Zap, Carla says that the concept obstetric violence is already used worldwide.
In the Portuguese case, this law was a step but it was not a very well defined step. In April, the egg already warned that the law passed a few days before is “insufficient” e failure in yours focus.
One of the articles of the law, more precisely article 2, defines obstetric violence “quite incompletelytranslating it through physical and verbal actions, that is, its most visible face. He is omisses psychological and emotional violence, the exercise of power, free and democratic access to health And above all, the consent”, reads in.
Carla Santos, from the egg, considers it as soon as The law must be corrected, it should not fall. And he regrets that, at the time, in the Assembly of the Republic, “they did not change a comma. It was not a priority, it was indifferent, just let it pass.” I preferred the deputies to have contributed to a “well -supported, robust” document.
What is at stake are medical guidelines and all medical practice in obstetrics (not only pregnancy and childbirth).
But there is a problem, indicates the egg element: “It’s all conceptualized from a male view, very centered on protocols that do not hear womenyour needs, your complaints. ”
“It’s a unilateral way of doing medicineto follow a delivery. It is not into account that there are many branches in childbirth. It is not into account that women can have decisions in the process, on their own body, ”he continues.
Carla warns that obstetric violence “is also institutional”, going through the lack of access to health care ”.
Although, compared to the first one who had with us in 2021, now There are more hospitals in Portugal who have turned to a part more careful, more Humanized: In addition to Póvoa de Varzim and Garcia da Orta, Fernando Fonseca became a “reference” at this level, as well as some “punctual reports” of hospitals in Barreiro and Vila Franca de Xira.
European wake up
The CDS claims that the concept of obstetric violence “is not aligned with the standards followed in other countries of the European Union.” Diogo Ayres de Campos adds that there are only such laws in Latin America.
This was another statement that reinforced the position of the egg, which withdrew the confidence to the director at Hospital Santa Maria.
“These doctors do not understand something very simple: the Europe has capitalized the sexual and reproductive processes of women. Medicine in Europe is tendentially private and European people think their health standards are superior (it is a fact), but They only think of violence and aggression – Obstetric violence is also that, but not only that: the woman does not make conscious decisions about her body“.
But the European ones are to wake up, Carla reports: Movements of obstetric violence began to emerge in Europe, after its beginning in Latin America – where very serious situations of lack of access to health began to accumulate.
Obstructing access to reproductive health is not only to have little access to hospitals, it is also capitalize The sexual processes of women, argues Carla Santos, who cites one of the CDS nominations in her abortion proposal, where she indicates that “the choice of woman should follow the private sector.”
In Europe, women are now “starting to realize what this is gender violence. Because it is much more subliminal. In Latin America this violence is much more palpable, more concrete, so there are very active women. And we have a lot to learn. Here we cannot see this violence as easily as in cases of scheduled caesarean sections.
“There is some interest here”
The director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Santa Maria Hospital, Diogo Ayres de Campos, speaks of “precipitated law” and warns that “grouping all negative experiences is complicated, there are many causes that are all in the same bag – some are crime, but there is no intent in most situations, which should be correct and not criminalizing”.
Is each case a case? “A Brutal update at the National Health Service in the care level of women ”, begins by answering Carla Santos, who realize Because there is this out of date: “Teams are overwhelmed, professionals barely have time for their own families, the more to update their practices.”
The egg manager agrees that We should not legislate medical acts. “We realize this. However, statements such as Diogo Ayres de Campos are silence, refuting and denying a protective law for women, which fights gender violence; And it does this instead of contributing to this law more robust and more effective to protect women, antagonizes women and women’s struggles. ”
Carla also criticizes the mansplaining, that “explains to women what is wrong.”
“We need construction, a law that serves mothers and health professionals. We need trained doctors and nurses, formed. There is no health without doctors – The lack of doctors, professionals, is also obstetric violence, ”he warns.
Carla vents that “There is some interest here That we are not realizing, in defending the class of doctors – and we are not even wanting to attack any class. ”
“Anyone who follows obstetrics and sexual and reproductive health of women, at the outset, should be a feminist. I say.”
Nuno Teixeira da Silva, Zap //
