Improving Birth: Break the Silence campaign
Human Rights in Childbirth: "Rinat Dray is Not Alone" (2015)
Human Rights in Childbirth: "Forced Episiotomy: Kelly's Story" (2014)
World Health Organization: "Prevention and elimination of disrespect and abuse during facility-based childbirth" (2014)
Amnesty International: "Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA" (2011)
Bowser & Hill via USAID: Exploring Evidence for Disrespect and Abuse in Facility-Based Childbirth" (2010)
“The effort to separate the physical experience of childbirth from the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of this event has served to disempower and violate women.”
- Mary Rucklos Hampton
"It seems that many health professionals involved in antenatal care have not realized that one of their roles should be to protect the emotional state of pregnant women.”
- Michel Odent, M.D.
“Giving birth should be your greatest achievement, not your greatest fear.”
- Jane Weideman
“Birth trauma lies in the eye of the beholder. Mothers perceived that their traumatic
births often were viewed as routine by clinicians.”
- Cheryl Beck
“The way a woman is treated by the professionals on whom she depends may largely determine how she feels about the experience for the rest of her life.”
- Penny Simkin