Structural Violence in Obstetric Care: Bureaucracy, Precariousness, and the Health Territory

Abstract

Obstetric violence has been a rising phenomenon both qualitatively and quantitatively. There are various actions that seek to eradicate them, the vast majority assume that the main conflict is found in the interaction between public servants/health professionals and patients/relatives. Although there has been research on the manifestations present in obstetric violence (verbal, physical, psychological) and some mechanisms that feed it such as habitus or cultural patterns, little has been studied on the structural violence that not only feeds but also feeds back and reproduces certain patterns of violence that, if not transformed, will perpetuate this phenomenon and will magnify every day as demand increases. For this analysis, three categories of analysis are proposed: the bureaucratization of care, the precariousness of care, and the health territory. The incorporation of this triad in the analysis of obstetric violence should open the debate on the structural, conceptual and material changes necessary to address the problems of violence in different contexts, understanding the interrelationship with different social determinants, not only with the intention of describe them but transforming them.