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There is extensive research documenting the physical outcomes of childbirth, but significantly less on socio-psychological outcomes. Investigating women’s perception of dignified treatment during birth contributes to a salient, under-examined aspect of women’s childbirth experiences.

We use a two-part conceptualization of dignity, respect and autonomy, to understand how birth experiences and interactions either facilitate or undermine women’s perceived dignity. Data came from the Listening-to-Mothers I survey, the first nationally representative study of postpartum women in the United States (n = 1,406). Through linear regression analysis, we separately modeled women’s perception of respectful treatment and women’s perception of medical autonomy during birth.

Overall women reported high scores for both autonomy and respect. Differences between the models emerged related primarily to the role of interventions and provider support. While women’s perceived dignity is related to elements that she brings in to the delivery room (e.g., birth knowledge, health status), much variation was explained by the medical encounter itself (e.g., type of medical interventions, pain management, nurse support, and number of staff present).

This study is cross-sectional, and required either a telephone or internet access, thus limiting the full generalizability of findings. Two findings have direct practical relevance for promoting women’s dignity in childbirth. First, the number of staff persons present during labor and birth was negatively associated with both respect and autonomy. Second, that women with high levels of knowledge about their legal rights during childbirth were more likely to report high scores on the dignity scale. Limiting staff in the delivery room and including knowledge of legal rights in childbirth education or during prenatal visits may be two mechanisms to promote dignity in birth.

These findings address an important, under-examined aspect of women’s childbirth experiences. This study investigates how different birth experiences and interactions either promote or violate childbearing women’s perception of dignity, and has significant implications for the provision of maternal healthcare. The results reinforce the importance of focusing on the socio-psychological dimensions of childbirth.

Can one describe the ‘natural’ process of pregnancy as ‘harm’, even when negligently brought about? What does that harm consist of? Offering a contextual analysis of the English judiciary's characterisation of wrongful pregnancy, this paper demonstrates from a feminist perspective that the current construction of pregnancy as a ‘personal injury’ is deeply problematic. Forwarding an alternative account, this paper argues for law to embrace a richer notion of autonomy that will better resonate with women's diverse experiences of reproduction, and articulate the importance of autonomy in the reproductive domain: notably, women gaining control over their moral, relational and social lives.

The research aimed at explaining women microcredit repayment delay when loans are not granted on any joint liability group nor any other scheme based on social capital or financial collateral.

Previous research showed that greater female autonomy is associated with bearing fewer children and the former could be correlated to a higher loan repayment rate because of social and financial benefits for the household. Female autonomy proxied through the number of children and its square is regressed on the number of weeks of repayment delay in an OLS model as well as in a multilogit model that identifies borrowers according to their credit status (regular, delayed, and delinquent).

We found that more autonomous women, those bearing less than four children, repay credit more promptly and are less likely to switch into the delinquent credit status.

Economic variables need to be complemented with some specific characteristics of the borrower, as they have a role in explaining women’s repayment delay.

The research provides an alternate explanation about why women repay loans when a microcredit institution does not rely on a lending methodology based on joint liability groups.

This paper examines the implications of the disability rights critique of prenatal testing on the development of genetic policy and abortion rights. It traces the reappearance of the disabled body in public deliberations over reproductive and genetic politics that use disability to frame arguments about which bodies are worthy of protection, how and why we limit reproductive choices, and what reasons women may use to terminate their pregnancies. The disability critique of prenatal testing and selective abortion finds itself in productive tension with reproductive rights politics, which increasingly features disability in both pro-life and pro-choice messages. The uneasy alliance between disability and pro-life interests has profound implications for both disability legal scholarship and the sociolegal inquiry into the role of rights articulation – and rejection – by social movements.

This chapter critiques the relationality between care and context to demonstrate how notions of routinised technologies are disrupted when considering the reproductive realities and situated constraints of ethnic and religious minority women. The chapter integrates ethnographic and qualitative data from two minority contexts, including maternity care provision for Orthodox Jews and how providers approach requests for sex-selective abortion (SSA) when caring for women from South Asian backgrounds. By examining responses to caesarean sections and abortion care among ethnic and religious minorities in the United Kingdom, the chapter critiques how routinised interventions are entangled in the anticipation of future reproductive potential. The idea of anticipatory futures serves as a reflection on the reproductive lifecourse, where technologies carry opportunities and implications that women and carers alike are tasked with negotiating. Taking inspiration from the reproductive justice framework, the chapter builds on a body of work that demonstrates how the concept of ‘choice’ is contingent and not inclusive of the situated constraints that can affect the reproductive lives of women from minority backgrounds. By delving into everyday reproductive constraints, the chapter raises implications for what inclusive woman-centred (or person-centred) care can involve, how providers approach ‘choice’, autonomy and justice in practice, and how their considerations reconfigure the otherwise ‘routine’ delivery of reproductive health services and technologies. Technologies increasingly invest the reproductive lifecourse with potential and anticipation, and the chapter calls on feminist scholars to understand the dilemmas posed for inclusive models of care beyond the discourse of ‘choice’.

This chapter examines symphysiotomy in twentieth-century Ireland as one example of a systematized obstetric violence that has characterized Ireland’s modern history. Expanding scholarly interpretations of state- and Church-inflicted abuse of women in the twentieth century, this analysis establishes the medical profession as a central actor alongside the twentieth-century state-Church coalition that regulated women’s reproductive lives and engaged in systematic repression. This chapter recognizes that Ireland’s history of reproductive abuse and coercion did not just involve contraception or abortion but also labor and birth experiences. In addition, it offers a more complete and complex interpretation of obstetric violence by highlighting the experiences of married women with wanted pregnancies; almost all research to date focuses on the experiences of unmarried pregnant women or unwanted pregnancies. This examination of symphysiotomy and obstetric violence in Ireland illuminates the ways in which religious, national, and medical power has been mapped on women’s reproductive bodies, particularly in the decades after independence in 1922. It also makes essential links between Ireland’s past and present, demonstrating that a careful analysis of the history of obstetric violence and the religious underpinnings of it are essential in understanding Ireland today. With this research, we also place symphysiotomy within the context of the global reproductive justice movement, asking how a reproductive justice framework – one that links reproductive rights with social justice – can help us interpret obstetric violence and address the wounds of Ireland’s past.

African feminist scholars and activists have made major contributions to our understanding of gender-based violence. This is especially the case in southern Africa, which has a long history of high rates of violence against women and girls. Their rates of gender-based violence are among the very highest in the world. While there are many forms of gender-based violence, this chapter will explore the important contributions of African gender scholars and activists to our knowledge concerning domestic violence and rape. These issues will be interrogated using Zimbabwe and South Africa as case studies, with some reference to Namibia. In the region, domestic violence and sexual assault have deeply rooted structural explanations linked to the long history of colonialism, apartheid and white minority rule, political transition, economic crises and adjustment, changes in expected gender roles and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In the past 25 years, Zimbabwe and South Africa attempted to address violence against women through the development of laws as well as the creation of non-governmental organizations. Although these important efforts have not resulted in a major decrease in violence against women, they clearly demonstrate the long history of African women’s actions in resisting state power and patriarchy. African women as citizens, scholars and activists are responsible for bringing to the fore the critical importance of reducing gender-based violence in order to establish strong, just and sustainable societies in southern Africa.

Gender inequality remains very strong in developing countries. Efforts are however made by actors involved in development projects to contribute to reducing these inequalities. Using observations coming from field experiences and a specific case for which some sex-disaggregated data are available, the author offers some lessons learned to practitioners. More specifically, this chapter questions the different phases of the project cycle, in particular the planning, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms regarding their role in considering gender. The chapter focuses on the relevance of initial gender diagnostics which allow identifying what needs to be addressed to reduce gender inequalities and proposing adequate solutions in specific cultural contexts. The author then provides some guidelines concerning operational arrangements necessary for effectively monitoring aspects related to the inclusion of women in development projects. This includes the design and implementation of a gender strategy, the designation of a dedicated focal point, the systematic planning and monitoring of sex-disaggregated data, the provision of staff skilled in gender issues, and the presence of a gender balance in project teams and support staff. The chapter emphasizes that it is essential to analyze the differential impacts that the development project may have on men and women; this is rarely done. Experience has shown that development can increase inequality due in particular to initial gender differences. Finally, the chapter recommends that to compensate for differences in initial opportunities and capacities, support for women in the budget should be strengthened.