Life's been good to me so far

I've come to think that informed consent is really the key to changing maternity care. If women were actually informed of the risks, benefits and alternatives, and had the right to refuse options presented, I really think birth would start to become much less medically managed. Not allowing women the right to informed consent and refusal is illegal, but currently barely any lawyers would ever take a case like this (because there is a lack of precedence, and they only take cases they know they can win), so the woman is left with her legal rights being violated but she has no recourse to bring justice to the people who violated her. They then continue this treatment of women unchecked. I really think that is what needs to change if we are ever going to see a difference. Also, this would go a long way in preventing trauma. Like in the example of your midwife, even a simple thing like a routine pap can be handled in a way where the woman feels in complete control. When they decide for her, even if she would have agreed to it anyway, they take away her power and control over her own body and things of this nature can lead to a traumatic response.

And yeah, I thought I could advocate for myself too, but, not in a system that will just hold you down and force you to comply against your screams of protest... I just had no idea that they could legally force me to do anything, so I thought I simply had to say "no" to what I didn't want. And I was right, it wasn't legal, but I didn't know that they would do it anyway. I wish someone would have educated me about that.