S2 Ep21: Cristen Pascucci: Fighting Back Against an Oppressive Birth System

Childbirth is an incredibly powerful rite of passage. The literal creation of life could be a source of empowerment, no matter how any individual person chooses to do it. Instead, patriarchy weaponizes birth as a tool of trauma and oppression that steadily normalizes the dehumanization of motherhood. My transition to motherhood included a massive fight against the hospital where I intended to give birth, multiple threatened lawsuits, and ultimately, a terrified hospital board attempting to appease me. That experience taught me that patriarchy depends on our silence, fear, and submission. When we fight back, we often win. The opening vignette for this podcast is the story of my first birth—the birth that solidified my identity as a birth justice activist. I met Cristen Pascucci of Birth Monopoly during the protest surrounding my first birth, and she’s been a friend and ally ever since. She’s a rich font of knowledge about birth and reproductive justice, and I think you’re going to love her. Some of the many topics we cover include: How patriarchy uses childbirth to enforce women’s submission and subjugation. The ways patriarchy weaponizes childbirth to get women to accept the devalued role of mother. Why even many feminists don’t take issues of birth justice seriously. The notion of birth as a punishment. Why we demand that women have no specific requests or desires surrounding their births, and why we stigmatize women for having any needs at all. The psychological effects of birth trauma, and why physical safety (which is wholly lacking in the American maternity care system) is not the only type of safety that matters. Why going along with the system doesn’t work, and why this is not about natural or crunchy birth. How a healthy birth system can manage medical interventions and save lives without also traumatizing families. Why we frame women as selfish for having any needs at all when they give birth. Patriarchy as a tool for controlling birth. The epidemic of racism in childbirth, and the role of white women as both victims and victimizers in the birth justice movement. How abusive clinicians weaponize the same tools as domestic abusers, such as by pretending to be victims. The stunning degree of abuse and neglect we expect women to accept during postpartum. The collective trauma of women in an abusive birthing system, and how this system steals years of women’s lives. How meeting patriarchy’s production demands can conceal women’s trauma, especially after birth. If you’re unfamiliar with the American birth system, you might not know that birth has gotten more dangerous here over the last generation, not less, and that we are the only wealthy nation in which this is happening. Maternal mortality here is skyrocketing, and abuse is rampant. It’s not just an American problem, though. Patriarchy weaponizes birth to hurt women across the globe. Even in nations where birth is physically safe as compared to the United States it is often not psychologically safe. I’ve written extensively about the state of birth in the US. You can read some of those pieces over on my Daily Kos column, as well as here, here, and here. About Cristen Pascucci After the birth of her son in 2011, Cristen Pascucci left a career in public affairs to study American maternity care and women’s rights within it. In 2012, she joined ImprovingBirth as vice president, spearheading a multi-year grassroots media strategy to get the maternity care crisis in national news, creating a legal advocacy hotline for pregnant women, and raising awareness around obstetric violence through consumer campaigns, including 2014’s #BreaktheSilence–a campaign adopted in multiple European countries as a consumer advocacy strategy. Cristen has helped organize, strategize, and publicize major lawsuits related to obstetric violence in hospitals. She is co-creator of the Exposing the Silence Project and host of Birth Allowed Radio. As founder of Birth Monopoly, Cristen advocates for a freer maternity care market, working closely with leading national advocates, organizations, and birth lawyers, as well as educating the public and healthcare providers about women’s human and legal rights in childbirth. After a decade of full-time work on the issue of obstetric violence, Cristen is now working on a documentary film on the subject: Mother May I. Podcast scheduling note We almost hit our goal of 50,000 downloads this month, so I’ve decided to keep doing weekly podcasts for as long as I can. Because things are slow in December, I will only release two episodes that month, I will then pick back up the second full week of January, with weekly podcasts for season three. Thanks for your ongoing support. Please continue to comment, like, share, and most importantly, leave positive reviews on your favorite podcast platform.