Human Rights in Childbirth
December 10th was Human Rights Day! This day is celebrated globally every year and I thought this would be the perfect time to reflect on human rights in childbirth.
In February of 2017, I had the honor of speaking at the Human Rights in Childbirth Conference (HRiC) in India.
The first successful HRiC was organised in the city of The Hague, Netherlands by the wonderful Hermine Hayes-Klein, a human rights lawyer from the United States. Hermine’s initiative to organize this conference came from her vision and mission to see all women respected and treated with dignity in the birthing arena.
In India, a dedicated group of women (and men!), the Birth India Organisation, and Bashi Kumar-Hazard (human rights in childbirth lawyer based in Australia) helped to make the 2017 HRiC conference possible.
This gathering was eye-opening and revealed to me that the world has a huge need for advocates to fight for the human rights of mothers and babies in childbirth and beyond. The mere fact that we have these kinds of conferences shows the stark reality – we are not serving mothers and babies in the manner in which they deserve!
It seems that once a woman becomes pregnant her autonomous right to make informed decisions is immediately hijacked. The fact that there are organisations and systems that declare their ownership over a mother’s body with her baby in this rite of passage journey shows that we have an extreme misunderstanding around the basic tenements of human rights…including infant and maternal health outcomes.
I heard many disturbing stories at the HRiC conference and I could not believe they were referred to as part of a framework for maternal care. They sounded more like an abusive form of power-based structures that saw their right of domination taking precedence above any kind of heart-based understanding for maternal care.
It seems to me this paternalism has been allowed to run its control for too long and without much challenge. It’s an appalling fact, and not just in India but worldwide. The problems experienced by many mothers, babies, fathers, partners, and families are common and heartbreaking to all.
I cannot stress this enough…the time is well and truly surpassed for a change!!
Despite disturbing stories, I was also uplifted and overwhelmed listening to (and meeting) incredible speakers who have had, and will continue to have, the courage to call out damaging attitudes and practises that do nothing to serve a mother’s well being.
All of this lead me to experience a strong vision around the fairy tale The Princess and the Pea – I saw the Princess sitting atop a huge pile of mattresses and the pea sitting under the very bottom one. I clearly felt the pea was a representation of a mother’s inner wisdom and the princess estranged from it by the pile of mattresses.
Human rights in childbirth was the key to this vision. I saw the need to deconstruct the maternal bed by bringing mothers and babies home through a loving compassionate model of care that rightfully understands when we love a mother, her baby, her body – then her inner wisdom will naturally, and without force, activate.
On the other hand, whilst she feels estranged from her womb wisdom and her baby, she will spend her pregnancy defending her need to be seen and heard in her autonomy – rather than indulging in a place of physical and spiritual harmony with her growing baby, partner, and family.
In some ways we all carry, on an unconscious level, society’s birth hurts and/or birth trauma whether we consciously realise it or not. And both personal and generational imprints can impact the way in which we all view maternal rights. As a collective, we are all in this together, and once we can truthfully acknowledge the patterns we carry in our own cellular memory as birth keepers, the more honest a change will be made at a foundational level.
Maha speaking at the Human Rights in Childbirth conference in India
Maha speaking at the Human Rights in Childbirth conference in India (2017)
As I continue my advocacy for human rights in childbirth here in Australia and worldwide, I highlight the needs of mothers and babies in order that they have a voice. I am blessed to have a voice of privilege here in the West. And despite there being less than optimal care of mothers here too, I do believe that if we (who actually have a voice) can speak up for what the collective needs – that is respect for Mothers Choice and Mothers Voices – our voice can be a gateway for our sisters worldwide who are not able to share their truth.
May we continue to speak the language of the feminine that awakens the heart for pregnancy and birth matters – because how birth goes is how life flows.
Enriching Humanity through the way in which mothers birth babies, is the way of hope, dignity, truth, and justice for a more peaceful and compassionate world. Let’s keep fighting for the right to respectful and genuine care that places mothers and babies at the center of the experience. This is the way forward for Human Rights in Childbirth.
