#maternitytoo: Understanding Obstetric Violence
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#maternitytoo: 'I Felt Powerless' Understanding Obstetric Violence for Mental Health ProfessionalsExperiences of traumatic birth are shaped not only by medical events, but also by how care is experienced within the maternity system. Women frequently describe care processes and provider interactions as central to their traumatic experience. Research suggests that experiences commonly described as ‘birth trauma’ may more accurately reflect systemic harms within maternity care, including forms of obstetric violence.
Despite this, most mental health professionals receive little formal training in recognising or responding to obstetric violence or the systemic factors shaping traumatic birth experiences. When obstetric violence goes unrecognised, women are often left minimising their experiences, blaming themselves, or struggling to understand why birth continues to affect them so deeply, while treatment may fail to adequately address the underlying causes and context of the trauma.
This webinar explores obstetric violence and birth trauma. It examines how power dynamics, communication, consent, ‘routine care’ and institutional practices surrounding birth and motherhood can influence women’s birth experiences.
The webinar will discuss:
• The definition and dynamics of obstetric violence
• How obstetric violence relates to birth trauma
• How common obstetric violence is in maternity care
• Tensions around obstetric violence as a term
• Clinical considerations in identifying and responding to obstetric violence
This webinar is suited to:
Anyone working within the perinatal mental health space including: Psychologists, counsellors, social workers, mental health OT’s, psychotherapists, EMDR therapists, and other professionals working with women and families in trauma or perinatal settings.
This webinar is not aimed at midwives or OB’s.
Please note:
• This webinar includes discussion of traumatic birth experiences, coercion, reproductive trauma and distressing maternity care experiences.
• This webinar is designed specifically for mental health professionals and is not aimed at midwives or obstetricians.
• The webinar does not seek to discourage medical intervention when clinically necessary or frame all difficult births as obstetric violence. Rather, it aims to improve understanding of the research around how women’s experiences are shaped not only by what happens medically, but by how the care is provided, including informed consent, and whether women feel safe, respected and heard during labour and birth.
This webinar will be recorded and made available to participants for 90 days following the event.
Date
Monday 13 July 2026 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM (UTC+10)Location
Online event access details will be provided by the event organiser
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#maternitytoo: Understanding Obstetric Violence
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