More than 50 mothers and activists picketed outside the National Department of Health in Pretoria on Monday to demand better maternity healthcare, and calling for an end to obstetric violence, reports GroundUp.
One of the members of the protest, which was organised by the Obstetric Violence Coalition, said she had been traumatised by how nursing staff treated her when she was giving birth in a Johannesburg hospital nearly four years ago. The experience inspired her to become an activist advocating for safe maternal health, she added.
“We deserve care in maternal wards,” she told GroundUp.
The group handed over a memorandum to health officials in which they listed the growing number of complaints over the shoddy treatment of women in obstetrics units at public and private facilities.
Complaints included verbal and physical abuse, humiliation, and being denied care or privacy.
“Women deserve dignity, safety, and respect during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum,” read the memorandum.
Among the demands is for government to develop a plan to increase maternal health resources within a year, and for an independent investigation into allegations of obstetric violence.
The Health Department was given 10 working days to respond. Deputy DG for TB, HIV and Maternal, Child, and Women’s Health Fikile Ndlovu promised to give them feedback.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Obstetric violence must be recognised as endemic in SA
Pregnant women suffer “obstetric violence” in health systems
UN report on the abuses against women in reproductive healthcare