Denaturalizing suffering in childbirth: An anthropological approach to a play about obstetric violence in Argentina

Abstract

Obstetric violence is one of the most naturalized and silenced forms of gender violence. In a widespread social framework of violation of the sexual and reproductive rights of those who give birth, this work addresses this problem from a feminist perspective in anthropology. I analyzed the central role that activists from women's groups have had in the search for the denaturalization of suffering in childbirth and its social recognition. In this sense, for this occasion I considered the staging of the play Parirnos between 2014 and 2019 by the Las Casildas group, from Buenos Aires, Argentina. This play was developed from testimonies of obstetric violence, which had a subsequent debate with the public. The main objective of this article is, then, to analyze the meanings and political uses of the suffering of those who give birth used through the play. Their main conclusion is that, unlike other activist proposals, Parirnos expanded the social conceptualization of the meaning of obstetric violence in Argentina.