In the article of White Ribbon Alliance entitled Respectful Maternity Care: The Universal Rights of Childbearing Women, I was appalled to learn that despite the notion of the society that childbearing was the most vulnerable time of women, expectant mothers experience abuse in different forms when seeking maternity care. Additionally, in the core of maternity, there is still the issue of gender equity and gender violence as motherhood is specific only to women. I thought that healthcare professionals are supposed to deliver a respectful health service where they create a stress-free environment when a mother seeks maternity care. It saddened me to know that the disrespect and abuse that mothers experience are not written and acknowledged to be part of the basic human rights which is supposed to be due to all people. Because of this, a Charter was needed to be established in order for it to be known universally that maternal disrespect and abuse are part of the broader context of human rights. In line with this, seven rights of childbearing women were published and grounded in international or multinational human rights instruments that affirms their
Reading this article made me realize that regardless of how high the value was given to the childbearing process of women, there still exists disrespect and abuse in which the extreme form for me was physical violence. This violence affects women not just the pregnancy process, but ultimately the development of the child in the womb. This negative experience was not even formally researched which shows the lack of awareness towards this kind of disrespect and abuse to expectant mothers that are most vulnerable in this period. I realized that as a soon to be nurse who will serve my fellow women in their childbearing period, I have the duty to give them a stress-free service that will contribute to their healthy and positive pregnancy experience.
Reference: White Ribbon Alliance (n.d.), Respectful Maternity Care: The Universal Rights of Childbearing Women, https://www.who.int/woman_child_accountability/ierg/reports/2012_01S_Respectful_Maternity_Care_Charter_The_Universal_Rights_of_Childbearing_Women.pdf