A story published by Mexican journal El Universal, about a woman who suffered from obstetric violence in a Mexico City hospital, has re-opened the debate about the efficiency of the healthcare services provided by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) which has come under fire for multiple allegations of malpractice, which have in many cases resulted in the death of infants.
Diana, whose last name was omitted from the story, asked the doctors multiple times the worst question a mother can come up with, “Is my daughter dead?”, the mother had to wait until the shifts changed before receiving an answer from the Hospital Venados staff who informed her that her baby’s heart had stop beating.
https://twitter.com/FunDonFreddo/status/934509777761083392
“Ahh, that’s just how things go,” one of the female doctors told an utterly devastated Diana, who was kept with the dead baby inside her for 10 more hours in a room filled with crying newly borns, only because her case was no longer “a matter of urgency”.
According to Diana, her pregnancy was running smoothly until week 33 of gestation, that’s when she started to notice a decrease in the movement of her baby, she then went to her IMSS corresponded clinic where the doctors told her that there was nothing strange going on with her pregnancy except for “a circular” which was never explained to the mother, making her feel uneasy about her doctor’s visit and her baby’s health.
The obstetric violence against women concerning across the world. @millihill taking at #hbacon2017 about forced Caesarean sections #ENOUGH pic.twitter.com/CW1Qmd2wGp
— Hannah Dahlen AM (@hannahdahlen) November 4, 2017
Her family doctor referred her to the emergency area of the hospital where she was received with scolding by the staff. The mistreatment only got worse and standard procedures were being done on her in an aggressive manner and without her consent. She had to beg and cry for an emergency ultrasound that was done six hours after its request, when the medical staff finally got around to doing it they berated her by saying “How is it possible that you waste our time like that? Your child is moving!”
However, the child was no longer moving, Diana remembers feeling a strong pull inside her body while waiting for medical assistance, she believes that pull was her baby’s last heartbeat before passing away. the doctor, in turn, tried to have Diana expel the child through natural labor, to which she responded: “I can’t give birth to my dead daughter, please don’t ask me to do it.”
Yes, this was also a march against obstetric violence! #stopforcedcsection #makeobstetricviolenceacriminaloffence #repealnotreplace https://t.co/pCidPRp8Tq
— Christina V. (@christi85573643) October 1, 2017
After a birth malformation in Diana’s arm indicated that she would be unable to push, doctors desisted on putting her through the labor and performed a cesarean operation to retrieve the baby that was taken away by funeral services staff to which Diana wasn’t able to assist.
According to a national survey about the dynamics in household relations by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), 33.4% of Mexican women aged 15 through 49, who delivered a baby between 2011 and 2016 have suffered from some form of obstetric violence, with Mexico City being the place where this occurrence happens the most.
https://twitter.com/JesusaRicoy/status/919843044173660161
Obstetric violence is a human rights violation that causes physical and psychological damage to a woman during her pregnancy, labor, and puerperium that expresses itself in the form of a lack of access to reproductive healthcare services, cruel and inhumane treatment, degrading or abuse of medicalization, impairment of their ability to decide freely and information on reproductive processes.
Article inspired by Debate // La mantuvieron 10 horas con su hija muerta en el vientre