Mistreatment, abuse, and gender-based violence during childbirth: a longitudinal analysis of obstetric violence in México (2011–2021)

Abstract

This longitudinal retrospective study of mistreatment, abuse, and gender-based violence during childbirth uses two population representative samples of mexican women to analyze the incidence of obstetric violence in Mexico from 2011 to 2021. Our assessment is that there are more continuities than changes in the phenomenon and our study does not find evidence to support the claims of increases in obstetric violence during the 2020–2021 COVID-19 pandemic. Conceptually it differentiates between acts of violence, disrespect, and abuse, based on socially constructed gender differences (gender-based violence), and those more generally related to medical authoritarianism and the biomedical model that confers medical professionals a more powerful and higher status relative to that of their patients.