We are producing a three-part series on Human Rights in Childbirth, which will be published and globally distributed in 2013. The plan for these volumes is as follows:
Volume 1: Fundamental Human Rights in Childbirth
Editors, Hermine Hayes-Klein and Robbie Davis-Floyd
What are the universal human rights at stake during pregnancy and childbirth? This collection will explore the human rights issues faced by birthing women around the world, and the essential questions that health care systems face as they navigate how to offer healthcare services, with the resources available to them, that optimize well-being for mother and baby while respecting the autonomy and authority of the birthing woman. This collection will also explore the rights and obligations of healthcare providers in the scope of their work around pregnancy and childbirth.
Volume 2: Human Rights in Childbirth: Case Studies
Editors, Chantal Gill’ard and Hermine Hayes-Klein
This collection will profile six birth care systems around the world from an HRiC perspective. For each birth system, the collection will include 4-5 articles from individuals working within that system from different perspectives. Together, the articles will illuminate the role of human rights in childbirth in the system from the macro perspective to the micro. The macro perspective: How does the healthcare system fit within the larger picture of the society and economy? What is the legal, social, and economic status of women in this country? The micro perspective: What is it like for women to give birth within this system? What are their options, and how does the framework of those options help to shape the way that most births play out? Have efforts been made to claim and protect women’s rights around childbirth, and if so what are they?
The birth systems profiled for Volume 2 will be:
Australia
Ecuador
India
Hungary
The Netherlands
Sierra Leone
Volume 3: Birth Stories: Human Rights in Childbirth
Editor, Hermine Hayes-Klein
Volume 3 will be written by mothers. It will consist of stories written by women, from around the world, who experienced violations of their human rights around childbirth. Sharing these stories is a critical step toward making sense of the significance of these experiences wherever they occur.
Contrbutors to Volumes 1, 2 and 3 will include Robbie Davis-Floyd, Ina May Gaskin, Barbara Katz Rothman, Agnes Gereb, Michel Odent, Anna Ternovszky, Roanna Rosewood, and many more. The collection will include articles by lawyers, law professors, and ethicists Farah Diaz-Tello, Elitsa Golab, Hermine Hayes-Klein, Elselijn Kingma, Elizabeth Prochaska, and more.
If you also wish to contribute to one of these volumes or you know somebody who should be included please send us an email outlining your possible contribution.