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In the three days leading up to the 35th Plurinational Meeting of Women, Lesbians, Trans, Transvestites, Bisexuals, Intersex, and Non-Binary People (which we successfully achieved for the first time to bear this name during the established days), we learned of a massive and deliberately violent police operation in Villa Mascardi, Río Negro. The Mapuche nation has long demanded the recovery of its ancestral territories, usurped by nationalist and capitalist logic.

This operation was intended to intimidate through eviction and to uphold private property as a form of cultural discipline. In this context, we also learned of the deliberate detention of seven Mapuche women members of the Lof Lafken Winkul Mapu on October 5. Following the unjustified decision (without prosecution) to transfer four of them to the women's prison in Buenos Aires, three of them were detained along with their babies and held incommunicado by the Airport Security Police in Bariloche, obstructing their defense. One of them, 40 weeks pregnant, was admitted to the Ramón Carrillo Hospital in Bariloche.

¿Was there a need for more cruelty towards the Mapuche community?

From a patriarchal perspective, it seems so. In this critical context of violated human rights, the Mapuche midwife who had been assisting Romina Rosas during labor was mistreated and denied admission to the hospital. Why should Romina be forced to deny her worldview while giving birth?

Deny a worldview

After Romina was admitted to the hospital, Romina's "puñelchefe"—her midwife and companion from the beginning of her pregnancy—was denied entry. As a traditional Mapuche midwife, she intended to engage in dialogue with the midwives on duty in the hospital's maternity ward, a basic requirement to minimally guarantee Romina's rights, but she was confronted by a uniformed Airport Security Police officer. She was asked for her ID, received mistreatment and hostility from the officer, and was forced to leave. Following these events, a video of Romina's "puñelchefe" circulated on social media. "They're not letting me in as their companion (...) we as Mapuche have our own worldview, our own way of giving birth; they're violating us . "

Various colleagues immediately mobilized to the hospital to ensure Romina's birthing conditions were guaranteed and to assert her right to support during labor. This right is enshrined in the Respectful Birth Law 25929 (passed in 2004 and regulated 11 years later, in 2015).

Finally, after complaints, the midwife was allowed into the hospital. But it seems that, from a police-judicial perspective, the intimidation already inflicted on them wasn't enough: " After two hours, they let me in, but the Airport Security Police searched me in an excessive, abusive, and degrading manner," the midwife confirmed.

Plurinational feminism

What perspectives can plurinational feminisms contribute? For decades, feminist movements have been denouncing the cultural disciplining exercised through the violence inflicted on the bodies of those who gestate. We point out, among other issues, the power relations involved in the construction of female sexuality as an object to be medicalized and intervened.

These power relations demonstrate that biomedical knowledge pathologized processes—such as childbirth—that once belonged to the citizenry. Different systems of knowledge about the pregnant body, such as those associated with midwives, or the knowledge of indigenous peoples about childbirth and self-care among women, were marginalized and subalternized as part of this pathologization process.

Medicalized childbirth became alien and external to those who, with their bodily experience, are central protagonists of the birthing process: those who gestate and their chosen companions.

Law of respectful birth

Today, we have a law on respectful childbirth, which, in its Article 2, establishes the rights of those giving birth. Among other things, this includes the right to be treated with respect and not to be discriminated against based on their culture, ethnicity, preferences, and choices (section b); and to be accompanied by a person of their choice and trust (section g). Childbirth accompaniment by a chosen person is understood as providing emotional and spiritual support, as well as being the person who can safeguard the rights of the person giving birth during the process.

However, the denial of admission and accompaniment of Romina's Mapuche midwife to the hospital violated this fundamental right.

In addition to the Respectful Birth Law, many other declarations, protocols, and childbirth guidelines in Argentina have been ignored and silenced. For ten years (yes, ten years), a guideline with an intercultural approach has been in place, promoted by the Ministry of Health in conjunction with UNICEF Argentina.

Previous complaints

In Buenos Aires, the "First Forum on Respected Indigenous Births" was held in 2021, organized by the provincial Ministry of Health. The women who attended argued that a culturally respected birth includes, among other things, being accompanied by people and/or midwives from their community. Furthermore, Romina was involved in an unjust detention process. If she had not been 40 weeks pregnant, she would have been deliberately transferred to the Buenos Aires prison along with her fellow inmates.

The denial of assistance during Romina's birth is part of a very common practice toward pregnant women deprived of their liberty. They cannot choose who accompanies them. Such incidents were already reported in 2019 by the National Penitentiary Prosecutor's Office in its report "I Gave Birth Like a Convict." In June of this year, the "Guide to the Implementation of Respectful Childbirth in Confinement Settings in the Province of Buenos Aires" was published. Although this guide is not nationally recognized, it provides a precedent in the defense of the right to assistance during birth for people deprived of their liberty.

A form of gender violence

Finally, Romina's experience of being denied support during childbirth is an act of obstetric violence as a form of gender-based violence. Obstetric violence, as clearly detailed in its text in Law 26485, is the opposite of rights during childbirth. When the right to support is violated, then obstetric violence exists. Furthermore, this form of violence, the most silenced of gender-based violence, was aggravated by discrimination and mistreatment in multiple forms. She was violated by denying the cultural context in which she carried out her pregnancy and by rendering her Mapuche worldview invisible. She was violated by reinforcing the stereotypes that people deprived of their liberty already carry: they must remain alone and silent . This power structure reflects how the punitive logic of prisons accommodates a hegemonic biomedical health approach.

It is urgent that we, as feminist movements, denounce the violation of the rights of our Mapuche women. Through collective struggle, it is a priority to defend the plurinationality of our territory. It is possible that Romina will be able to give birth accompanied by her midwife and without being deprived of her freedom.

The author of this column is a feminist anthropologist and professor, a doctoral candidate at the Institute for Research in Gender Studies (IIEGE), FILO/UBA.