Naming Silence and Inadequate Obstetric Care as Obstetric Violence is a Necessary Step for Change

This response article addresses the questions raised in "How Gentle Must Violence Against Women be in Order to not be Violent? Rethinking the Word 'Violence; in Obstetric Settings" and concludes that naming violence is critical for describing people's experiences of such violence and for addressing the structures and contexts that create and fuel such violence, not for judgment but for accountability and change. Impact, outcome, and, at times, processes-rather than intention-should underpin applications of the term violence; naming violence does not disempower women, but rather naming structural, systemic, and institutional violence demands acknowledgment, accountability, and responsibility for its effects on both patients and clinicians; and, finally, while the unintended consequences of using such a term may present challenges, they do not outweigh the importance of naming structural violence in health-related systems to identify practices and processes that discriminate, disempower, harm, and oppress.