Citation

Briceño Morales X, Enciso Chaves LV, Yepes Delgado CE. Qual. Health Res. 2018; 28(8): 1308-1319.

Affiliation

1 University of Antioquia, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1049732318763351

PMID

29749290

Abstract

This study sought to understand the meaning that women place on the health care practices carried out during labor. We used techniques from Grounded Theory such as coding, categorization, and constant comparison. A total of 18 interviews were conducted with 16 women who had given birth at least once in Colombia. Based on our results, we argue that obstetric violence is an expression of violence during the provision of health care, which occurs in a social environment favoring the development of power relationships between patients and health care staff. Its origin might lie in a health care system whose political and economic foundations encourage inequality on the basis of the patients' purchasing power. We conclude that rethinking and redefining the concept of obstetric violence is essential for understanding its nature and having an impact on it.

Language: en

Keywords

Grounded Theory; South America; Violence against women; childbirth; empowerment; health care; power; qualitative; reproduction; users’ experiences; violence