Cronk Week 4 Blog Post

Violence Against Women and Trauma

Reframing violence against women and trauma as health issues reinforce our understandings of health, illness, and medicine. What are our understandings of health, illness, and medicine? Culturally-constructed. There are multiple realms of health and illness: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, et al, and in treating the mass variety of human healths and illnesses, there are several approaches, including allopathic and holistic medicine. Now, what is considered to be traumatic to one person may not be traumatic to another person because it is considered to be culturally-constructed (Lecture 4.1). The ways in which we understand the lives of women are controlled by our own biases because gender is also culturally-constructed (Lecture 2.1). All of these concepts–trauma, gender, health, illness, and medicine–are subject to definition and/or method by way of culture. One’s health or illness may not be personally experienced by everyone, but it still exists. One’s method of medicine is not better than the alternatives, for they are all culturally valid to someone.

In my selected country, Croatia, there were 1,228 reported criminal offenses of rape between the years 2000 and 2010 (Global Database on Violence against Women: Croatia). That means for 1,228+ women, violence and trauma occurred. How these survivors choose to handle their violence and trauma moving forward remains up to their individual cultural-biases, as well as their personal levels of comfort in vulnerability and overall safety. They should have the opportunity to reach out for medical assistance, but this is not always the case. “The public debate about the treatment that women get in Croatia’s hospitals has put the issue on the political agenda” (Vladisavljevic). This is bittersweet because although it is important to discuss these major health issues and promote change, there are a lot of male politicians who now get a voice when it comes to the reproductive health of women in their country. The violence against women and trauma that occurs provides potential interference with every realm of health and illness cross-culturally, and should, therefore, be addressed in every culturally-corresponding medicinal approach.

Intergenerational trauma challenges biochemical, mechanical models of health. One of the major weaknesses of biomedicine is handling chronic, long-term conditions (Lecture 1.7). Trauma that inspires unresolved emotions can trigger drug or alcohol dependency or abuse, as well as a plethora of potential mental illnesses. These negative patterns can be genetically passed on through generations. Another weakness of biomedicine is in handling situations where the individual is not solely responsible (Lecture 1.7). Many negative patterns are affected by environmental, social, and other factors outside of the doctor’s office that are not as easy to point out. If a patient is showing signs of negative patterns, and the doctor is unaware of past family medical records, there could very well be a misdiagnosis. On the other hand, if a patient is showing signs of negative patterns, and the doctor is aware of past family medical records, there could be a misdiagnosis based on the assumption that it is the same cause and effect as previous generations. 

There are over four hundred women in Croatia who have spoken out about the obstetric violence they endured during pregnancy care. They experienced invasive procedures without the aid of anesthetics and were given unnecessary high-risk c-sections, among other forms of abuse. “For Daniela Drandic from Roda, the problem lies with women’s experiences of reproductive healthcare being viewed through a different lens from men’s health” (Twigg). I disagree slightly because although I understand her perspective, women’s health and men’s health are different, but should be considered equally as important. Women and men do not experience all of the same health issues; they may compare, yes, but definitely not when it comes to reproduction. Before medical and technological advancements, women have been giving birth without the assistance of anesthetics since the beginning of time. Now that anesthetics are available, a patient should have the right to choose whether or not they are used. A patient should also give consent prior to any procedure, allowing the doctor to fully explain before potentially causing any unexpected trauma. This potential trauma could, again, result in intergenerational patterns of illness and health issues related to pregnancy. Maybe Croatia’s relatively low birth rate is affected by stories of past trauma, and fewer women are willing to endure the obstetric violence and abuse in order to have a child under those circumstances.

References

Twigg, K. (2019, January 11). Croatian Women Challenge Brutal Pregnancy ‘Care’. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46803178.

Global Database on Violence against Women: Croatia. (2016). Retrieved from http://evaw-global-database.unwomen.org/fr/countries/europe/croatia

Vladisavljevic, A. (2018, November 08). Violent Treatment During Childbirth: Croatian Women Speak Out. Retrieved from https://www.healthynewbornnetwork.org/blog/violent-treatment-during-childbirth-croatian-women-speak-out/.

One thought on “Cronk Week 4 Blog Post

  1. I thought you brought up a lot of really good points in your blog post this week. One of them in particular that stood out to me was your explanation of how intergenerational trauma challenges biomedical models of health. I agree with the fact that alcohol dependency. And mental illnesses can be passed on through generations and that this is a weak point within the biomedical model. Do you have any ideas on how the biomedical model can be reframed or improved to overcome this weakness and consider aspects like these to help individuals? In addition to alcohol abuse being passed on through generations, the lecture also mentioned that some women who have been abused are afraid to pass on the abuse that they have experienced to their children. Do you think that they will grow up to be abusive or that they are more likely to marry an abusive husband?

Leave a Reply