Ep54: What We Can Do About Obstetric Violence and Birth Trauma with Cristen Pascucci

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today's topic is an incredibly important one: obstetric violence. I know it sounds a bit heavy, but it's something that all of us - expecting families, doctors, midwives, doulas, and people in society - should know more about. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I'm excited to be joined on this episode by Cristen Pascucci, an incredibly dedicated advocate and activist for human rights during childbirth. She has a number of projects, including Birth Monopoly and</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mother May I</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">(a documentary about obstetric violence), that are working to reduce the amount of birth trauma that mothers are currently experiencing around the world.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cristen and I cover a lot of ground in this episode - we talk about what exactly obstetric violence is, whether it's different from birth trauma, and why it's so common.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We also talk about what you can do if you have experienced obstetric violence and what we need to do in the health care system and beyond to move to a more patient-centered care model for expecting moms.</span></p> <p><strong>In this Episode, You’ll Learn About:</strong></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">What obstetric violence is and how it relates to birth trauma</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How medical providers and other birth professionals can put patients through obstetric violence</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why you shouldn't be afraid to change your birth professional if you aren't getting the care you want</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why we have to examine not only individual instances of obstetric violence, but our systems as well</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">What you can do if