As for the birth rape I have had a change about the way I see things. I used to think this was too strong a word until a woman explained how when someone is touching and forcing fingers or anything else up a woman’s vagina and she is screaming no and it doesn’t stop. It is rape. There may be no gun but there are threats of the death of you or you baby with no justification and when a woman is in this vulnerable position it certainly is like a gun. Woman are treated roughly and so are their babies when they are not compliant with everything done to them. Threats of court orders to comply have also been made.
Thank for presenting this side of things!

1. Not only are you assaulted and traumatized, but your baby is also often assaulted and traumatized as well.

2. Society keeps telling you that you were not raped and your trauma is unwarranted. Other rape victims’ pain is validated and accepted by the vast majority of society.

3. Birth rape is combined with emotional climax of childbirth, and at the same time, demolishes the woman’s rightful chance at a positive, empowering experience.

4. A birth rape victim’s attacker is a highly regarded institutionalized operation. Many even regard the rapists as Gods, and defend them as such. The mother who was birth raped is also often verbally attacked by the rapists’ cult followers.

5. Birth rape victim do not have the precedence that other rape victims do in court. Also, their attacker is protected.

ALL rape victims need a voice. Please educate yourself before you attack. Homebirth is the safest option for the vast majority of women. Those who “know” they needed an intervention are most often misinformed. Your Dr saved you/your baby from the dire situation(s) he/she created when they starting messing with your pregnancy/birth in the first place.

Let the emotionally charged and poorly informed replies begin…

What angers me so about this article is that it talks about ‘empowering women’, yet goes on to give a completely one-sided view of home births vs. hospital births. There’s no mention of the pros or cons of hospital vs. home births, and only very vague statistics or studies quoted that don’t do much to support April’s arguments. If you want to write an unbiased article, you need to explore both sides, give relevant data and studies to back everything up, and let the reader decide what’s right for them.

You talk about empowering women, yet the article left me feeling anything but. I thought we had come so far as women and the freedom we hav in our decision making, including childbirth. But after reading an article like this, I realize how much further we have yet to go. Empowering is about giving unbiased information and letting the person decide for themselves. Next time you write, keep that in mind before you start pointing your finger.