Public Story
Battlefield
Summary
Battlefield is a mixed media project about obstetric violence and abusive care during pregnancy and birth.
A recent study reported that one in six women have experienced maternal mistreatment from invasive practices. Obstetric violence is a human rights issue on a worldwide scale, yet it remains a relatively taboo subject. As a documentary photographer, mother of two boys and a friend to dozens of mothers in my worldwide community, it became clear in my conversations with them that I need to tell this story. My methodology combines traditional documentary techniques with an exploratory approach. I make self portraits and document fractions of my daily life that evoked the trauma. In revisiting hospitals and exploring the objects used by medical providers for birth, I hope to start a conversation on how these are being used and could be used. I aim to visually engage the viewer on the emotional journey that we, women, go through when unnecessary practices are forced on us by healthcare providers, imparting unresolved trauma on the mothers held in their care.