Unnecessary Caesarean sections and obstetric violence in Mexico: growing visibility and resonance

Abstract

The category of obstetric violence has existed for several years in the legal and public arenas in Mexico. Among the practices in this field, the increase in the use of caesarean section has fueled a reflection on the kind of considerations that push to favor a surgical intervention over a vaginal delivery; this situation increasingly raises discussions in several public arenas. The article analyses several articles written by specialists in two Mexican journals Salud Pública de México and Género y Salud en Cifras. The goal is to observe, after an analysis of some articles, the evolution of conceptions of caesarean sections over the past decades and to understand the questions surrounding the increase of the C-Sections and the reasons (medical and non-medical) which underpin this decision, to identify a potential profile of women and the progressive emergence of the discourse of risk of having a C-Section. We could observe that the research on the increase in the number of caesarean sections has indeed gained in importance, also the research on the non-medical criteria. We also noticed that the two reviews analyzed, rarely link their reflections to the category of obstetric violence. Among other things, we were able to remark the gradual amplification of the discourse of risk, as well as the establishment of an approach consisting in including among the risk factors for the childbirth the fact of being a candidate for a C-Section without specific medical justifications.