“Birth rape” is a term used to describe forceful penetration of hands, medical instruments, or any otherwise unwanted item in the vagina or rectum as well as forced procedures on a pregnant woman or a woman in labor by a medical professional and especially a midwife. One birth story blogger I found has defined birth rape as, “The experience of having fingers, scissors, and/or tools put/pushed/shoved inside a woman's vagina or rectum without her direct (or indirect) permission… Being coerced, manipulated, or lied to regarding the health and safety of the baby or themselves so the midwife [or doctor/nurse] is able to do something to the mother's vagina, rectum, cervix, or perineum, usually with excuses; rarely with apologies. “
To be more specific, a woman might feel as if she has experienced birth rape in one of these situations (of course these aren’t the only ones):
• A doctor or midwife tells them they are simply checking the cervix when in fact they are removing the membrane and/or dilating the woman manually without expressed permission
• A doctor or midwife breaks their water without expressed permission.
• A doctor or midwife does a vaginal exam forcefully, i.e. putting their legs in the stirrups forcefully or forcing their knees apart.
• A doctor or midwife anonymously injects or otherwise gives in a deceptive manner labor inducing drugs such as Cytotec, Pitocin, or Cohosh without expressed permission.
• A doctor or midwife deceptively gives a homeopathic without expressed permission.
• A doctor or midwife bullies or intimidates the woman into procedures or interventions that are unnecessary and that the woman did not want.
• A doctor or midwife refuses to give the woman an epidural after she is medically able to have it.
• A doctor or midwife repeatedly tells them to “be quiet,” or “shut up” and refuses to let the woman talk.
• A doctor or midwife refuses to provide adequate anesthesia for stitching.
• A doctor or midwife forces a woman to have a C-section.
Looking around on the internet, you can find a lot of reports containing instances like these. To me, some of these are beyond scary. I’m especially glad I didn’t know about any of this stuff while I was pregnant.
I actually had one of these things happen to me at a doctor’s visit, but I didn’t really feel violated (and I still don’t). My doctor said he was checking my cervix to see how dilated I was. He announced that I was definitely a two and then said that “this might hurt,” and it did, lol. He did what’s called sweeping the membrane, where the doctor removed the membrane to speed up labor. He explained to me after he did it and I didn’t really care or feel violated but I suppose I could see how someone would.
I’m not trying to argue the reality of these assaults during pregnancy and especially labor. They’re real and some of them are scary. You trust your life and your baby’s life to these people. It’s scary when they’re forcing you to do things you don’t want to do, especially a C-section! It’s scary when they yell at you or taunt you or bully you. I’m so lucky I didn’t experience that and I’m not trying to demean anyone’s traumatic experience concerning this type of assault.
What I’m saying is, it’s not rape, and it shouldn’t be called that. It’s assault, yes. It’s serious assault, yes. But it isn’t rape.
Rape is forced penetration by a penis into a vagina or rectum without consent. And then we have the term sexual assault for forced sexual acts not specifically defined by rape. Birth assault is neither rape nor sexual assault. It’s birth or labor assault.
Yes, I agree that whoever does these things should go to jail for them. Yes, I believe these are very real, very scary experiences. Yes, I believe you SHOULD be upset and press charges if this happens to you, but I do not believe you should keep calling it rape. I believe it should be called for what it is: assault.
Do you know anyone who has had this happen to them?
Do you agree or disagree that these acts and others like them should be punishable by law?
Do you agree or disagree with the specific term “birth rape?”
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