Public Policies and Obstetic Violence: An Anthropological Overview of Achievements and Challenges in Argentina

In this chapter, I discuss the impact of the 2009 legal recogniton of obstetic violence on birth care services and the taining of the next generaton of health providers as well as residents in obstetics and gynecology and in midwifery in Argentina. Using interview data with caregivers, I analyze the successful case of the public Estela de Carloto MaternitHospital (MEC-Maternidad Estela de Carloto), which was able to implement a healthy and physiologic model of care; the hospital shifed its incidence of medical interventon (for example, caesarean sectons and labour inductons) to within and below recommendatons fom the World Health Organizaton (WHO) after the enactment of Argentinian laws on humanized birth and obstetic violence. I use data derived fom wider ethnographic feldwork undertaken in Argentina between October 2016 and August 2017 within the project “Obstetic Violence: Te New Goal for Research, Policies, and Human Rights on Childbirth” (2016-2018).