‘Put Right Under’: Obstetric Violence in Post-war Canada

Summary

This paper takes the personal narratives of Canadian mothers and fathers as a starting point to examine the broader state of obstetrics in post-war Canada. As natural childbirth ideologies attracted growing North American attention from the mid-1940s onwards, an increasing number of Canadians sought less-medicalised births. Despite these desires, anaesthetisation—often without consent and contrary to the expressed wishes of the labouring woman—remained a mainstay of obstetric practice, and was used to prevent ‘untimely’ deliveries beyond a physician’s control. A growing group of Canadians spoke out against the ongoing use of this strategy, and, in voicing their support for natural childbirth, drew attention to the various types of abuse and mistreatment (both physical and psychological) that expectant mothers received at the hands of medical professionals. Professional tensions sustained a particular culture of harm in Canadian obstetric practice throughout the post-war period.

natural childbirth, obstetrics, pain, anaesthetisation, professionalisation