The recently published ‘Routledge Companion to Gender and Reproduction’ features a chapter by Princess Banda, DPhil student at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography. The chapter, entitled “An introduction to the Framework of ‘Obstetric Racism’: Theory and Intellectual Lineage” introduces the theory and intellectual heritage of ‘obstetric racism’ positioning it as a pivotal contribution to understanding, researching and articulating the racialised obstetric violence Black women across the world are subjected to.
Coined by African American anthropologist Dána-Ain Davis, the theory and framework of obstetric racism is a relatively new contribution to critical scholarship regarding maternal health inequities and reproductive (in)justice. It proposes that Black women are subjected to seven elements of racialised obstetric violence (although these are not exhaustive): diagnostic lapses (e.g., misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis); neglect, dismissiveness, or disrespect; intentionally causing pain; coercion; ceremonies of degradation (such as having to crawl to the toilet instead of walking or being wheeled because staff won’t give the appropriate support); medical abuse; and racial reconnaissance (i.e., the emotional and intellectual labour Black women pre-emptively do in anticipation that they might be racialised or stereotyped).
The framework of obstetric racism is central to Princess Banda’s thesis. Inspired by what has been described as ‘a Black maternal health crisis’ she is researching Black UK-based women’s experiences of racism in the maternal period – during pregnancy, birth and post-partum. She will explore and consider how and to what extent Davis’s seven dimensions of obstetric racism reflect what Black women actually go through.
Read the chapter in full:
An introduction to the Framework of ‘Obstetric Racism’: Theory and Intellectual Lineage
