•In the report released on April 8, 46% of women who had experienced OBV were between 25 and 34 years of age.
•51% of women who participated came from low income and below-the-poverty-line households.
A survey on Obstetric Violence faced by women in Kenya has revealed compelling evidence that Kenyan mothers are being subjected to gross human rights violations while seeking maternal care.
“It was in 2017 when I was seeking maternal service for my delivery, I was tossed from hospital to hospital due to my condition. I was born with Cerebral palsy and there are so many myths and misconceptions about it,” Josephine Kamene says.
Kamene says that during all that time she was in labour pains she felt so helpless.
“It was my long-awaited day to just hold my bundle of joy in my arms but the doctor/ nurse ruined it for me. I remember this one female medical practitioner who said "We don't handle such people" just upon arrival before even uttering a word to her she had already concluded everything for me,” she says.
“How sad! This broke my heart to the core which changed my whole experience and I decided that I'll never allow any other person to go through what I went through more so those with Disabilities.”
Another respondent Beril* said she had experienced prolonged labour for days and was requesting a caesarean section since she had also lost the amniotic fluid.
“… but the doctor did not want to listen to me until there was no foetal movement and they now had to rush me to the theatre as an emergency. The labour wasn't progressing either,” she says.
“I saw death. By mistake, they also cut some veins and only noticed when stitching the opening so they had to start again. It was such a long time before they took me back to the theatre.”
For Julia* she was about to give birth and she kept telling the nurse to attend to her.
"...but they were just taking their sweet moment in catching up and laughing and without notice my newborn had arrived and slid down the table to the floor," she says.
"...she started abusing me verbally why I didn't notify them that I was about to have the baby when it was my first time experiencing childbirth."
The three are some of the respondents who were interviewed in a survey by Nguvu Collectives that indicated that majority of mothers said they had experienced at least one form of Obstetric Violence.
In the survey dubbed “Towards Ending OBV in Kenya”, 83 per cent of the women said they had experienced OBV. Out of this, 11% were women with disabilities.
In the report released on April 8, 46 per cent of women who had experienced OBV were between 25 and 34 years of age.
Some 51 per cent of women who participated came from low-income and below-the-poverty-line households.
The survey drew responses from 189 women from 27 counties in Kenya.
A majority of incidents of OBV reported occurred during childbirth, with 55 per cent of respondents experiencing mistreatment during this stage.
According to the report, 27% of the reported incidents occurred during pregnancy, highlighting that mistreatment was not confined to the labour room.
Those most prone to subjecting women to OBV were nurses at 51% followed by doctors, obstetricians and gynaecologists at 25%, and non-clinical staff at 19%.
The survey also revealed that 9% of the reported OBV incidents resulted in infant deaths, while 13% had a long-term negative impact on the child's health and development.
The survey was conducted between February and March 2024 through phone interviews and in-person visits to hospitals.
Partnerships Specialist at Nguvu Collective Ajra Mohamed said OBV is a shocking reality that has seldom been spoken about publicly.
“This is evidenced by the fact that 94% of the women who participated in the survey said they did not report their OBV experience because they felt no action would be taken,” Mohamed said.
“Our survey is a stark reminder of the human toll of Obstetric Violence, which is a serious threat to National progress on maternal, infant, and child health. The situation demands radical change in maternal healthcare policies and practices.”