Introduction: While childbirth has been turned into a highly medicalized and controlled process, the women's experiences and perceptions of it have been trivialized. There is a growing body of research reporting of women's experiences of disrespect, abuse and autonomy loss during childbirth. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyse and present various forms of mistreatment of women during childbirth and their consequences. The aim is to highlight the linkage between the mistreatment of women during childbirth and social inequality of women and the medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth. Methods: A systematic review of scientific and professional literature was used. The search of literature was conducted using the AcademicSearchComplete, Cinahl, SocINDEX and Medline databases, the cooperative bibliographic system COBIB.SI and the digital library dlib.si. Keywords such as childbirth, mistreatment, obstetric violence, disrespect and abuse, traumatic childbirth, autonomy, porod, porodniško nasilje, travmatičen porod, nespoštljivost, zloraba, avtonomija were used. Results: Twelve articles were included in the qualitative synthesis and five core categories were identified: defining and typologies of mistreatment of women during childbirth, practices of mistreatment, consequences of mistreatment of women during childbirth, mistreatment of women during childbirth in the context of human rights and drivers of mistreatment of women during childbirth. The core categories were further construed. They elaborate on different definitions of mistreatment and various forms of it, such as physical, sexual and verbal abuse, stigma and discrimination, failure to meet professional standards of care, poor rapport between women and provider and health system conditions and restraints. Discussion and conclusion: The concept of mistreatment of women during childbirth is difficult to define clearly, as the various forms of manifestations of it are entwined and coinciding. The terminology used reveals the correlations between mistreatment of women during childbirth, inequality of women, gender-based violence, medicalization of childbirth and the threat to women’s rights. Medicalization of childbirth is the key concept, necessary for a broader understanding of the phenomenon of obstetric violence. It is a form of control of women and violence against women and a form of institutional violence. The power relations between health professionals and labouring women strongly parallel the societal position of dominance of men and subordination of women, therefore it is a complex, systemic phenomenon. As such, it demands a multidisciplinary approach on different levels: healthcare, politics, legislation, education and civil society movements. It is vital that the broader, structural causes of mistreatment of women during childbirth are addressed.
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