Rodante van der Waal

Rodante van der Waal (she/they, 1992) has a PhD in Care Ethics and is an independent midwife in Amsterdam. They have a BA in midwifery, and a BA and MA in Philosophy (cum laude) from the University of Amsterdam. Their PhD got awarded with the price for best feminist dissertation in the Netherlands in 2022-2025 by Feministisch Cultuurfonds. Their research focus is on obstetric violence, abortion, midwifery and reproductive justice from feminist, decolonial, abolitionist, and care ethics perspectives. They are the author of the book Birth Justice: From Obstetric Violence to Abolitionist Care (Amsterdam University Press). Their articles and poems have been published in Hypathia, Violence Against Women, Social Text, Feminist Theory, PLOS one, Frontiers, Angelaki, Agenda, Feminist Anthropology, Birth, Nursing Ethics, Trouw, NRC, Jacobin, de Gids, Tirade, nY, Samplekanon, Deus ex Machina, ILFU and Medisch Contact. In 2025 they published the Dutch book Baas in eigen buik. Een essay over reproductieve rechtvaardigheid (Nijgh & Van Ditmar), which got longlisted for the Socratesbeker 2026 for the best philosophy book of 2025. They are a member of the Critical Midwifery Studies Collective, the Abortion Network Amsterdam, and the editor of Contractions.

Aankondigingen/ Announcements:

>> Mijn debuutbundel, Op navelhoogte de kans, verschijnt op 21-01-2026.

28-01-2026 is de bundepresentatie in combinatie met een literaire avond over abortus. De avond is voor iedereen toegankelijk, tickets via Perdu.

>> Baas in eigen buik: Een essay over reproductieve rechtvaardigheid staat op de longlist voor de Socratesbeker 2026!

>> Baas in eigen buik staat op het eindejaarslijstje beste boeken van de Nederlandse Boekengids!

Foto door Verena Blok.

>> Birth Justice won the dissertatieprijs van het Feministisch Cultuurfonds and the Nederlandse Onderzoeksschool Gender Studies!

About Birth Justice: From Obstetric Violence to Abolitionist Care:

“Rigorously argued, and drawing on a wealth of interdisciplinarities, the valuable and transformative perceptions contained in Birth Justice will speak strongly to academic readers, activists, care professionals, and health care policy makers. It is a call to arms, in the most profound sense – to the arms of care, of community, of justice.”  
– Elizabeth Newnham, Associate Professor, Flinders University, author of Towards the Humanisation of Birth. 

“Beautifully and attentively written, the end-result is a vibrant philosophical meditation on birth, abolitionist care, and the work of gestational justice. Deeply thought-provoking, honest, and humane – this book is intellectual nourishment.” 
– Rachelle Chadwick, Senior Lecturer in Gender-based Violence, University of Bristol, author of Bodies that Birth: Vitalizing Birth Politics. 

“The Netherlands was the last industrialized country to lose independent midwifery to obstetric control, to see birth turned into one more hospital procedure done ON not BY the mother. This brilliant, sad but true, book documents the consequences.” 
– Barbara Katz Rothman, Professor of Sociology, City University New York, author of In Labor, of The Tentative Pregnancy and most recently, The Biomedical Empire.

NEW:

December 2025: Recensie Baas in eigen buik in Filosofie Magazine.

December 2025: Podcast ILFU over abortus, Baas in eigen buik en Op navelhoogte de kans.

November 2025: Interview op VRT Nieuws over Baas in eigen buik en free birth.

November 2025: Interview op Radio VRT1 bij de Wereld van Sophie over Baas in eigen buik en free birth.

Oktober 2025: Interview bij VPRO docs over Baas in eigen buik.

Oktober 2025: Te gast bij Nooit meer slapen over Baas in eigen buik.

Oktober 2025: Interview bij Damn Honey over Baas in eigen buik.

Oktober 2025: Interview en korte bespreking in Filosofie Magazine.

Oktober 2025: Voorpublicatie Baas in eigen buik in de Groene Amsterdammer.

Juli 2025: Interview in Trouw ‘Binnen de geboortezorg is grensoverschrijdend gedrag genormaliseerd’

April 2025: Our Routledge Companion to Gender and Reproduction is out!

February 2025: New article out in Hypathia: Hacking Reproductive Justice: Solomon’s Judgement and the Captive Maternal.

December 2024: In conversation with Trudy Dehue about her book Ei, foetus, baby in the Dutch journal for healthcare and ethics: Gedwongen zwangerschap is de ultieme ontmenselijking.

November 2024: Poetry cycle Bewijzen about midwifery work on Samplekanon.

November 2024: Interview with Emma Curvers in her article on the episiotomy, de Volkskrant.

October 2024: Our response to professional midwifery and obstetrics organizations’ refusal to acknowledge the term ‘obstetric violence’: Obstetric violence: abuse during childbirth is widespread, but the first step to fighting it is naming it.

August 2024: New article in the Dutch Jacobin on mutual aid and abolitionist care in midwifery and abortion activism: Wederzijdse hulp: Abolitionistische zorg voor een betere wereld.

June 2024: One-hour interview with Heleen Debruyne on De Jaren, Flemish radio.

June 2024: New article in Social Text: Undercommoning Anthrogenesis: Abolitionist Care for Reproductive Justice.

May 2024: Short interview on Dutch radio, Omroep MAX, NPO on the philosophy of the placenta together with artist Farah Widmer, 2024.

May 2024: Opinion article in Trouw on censorship of Pro-Palestinian voices in the Dutch university:

May 2024: The European Commission published a report on obstetric violence in the EU. Marit van der Pijl and I wrote the casestudy on the Netherlands.

May 2024: Interview with NRC on obstetric violence and obstetric racism.

April 2024: Chapter in Bahareh Goodarzi & Daan Borrel’s Baren buiten de box.

April 2024: New article in Feminist Theory: ‘The ‘dead baby card’ and the early modern accusation of infanticide: situating obstetric violence in the bio- and necropolitics of reproduction’

April 2024: New Article in PLOS ONE: ‘Shroud waving self-determination: A qualitative analysis of the moral and epistemic dimensions of obstetric violence in the Netherlands’

February 2024: One of the key-articles of my PhD-thesis is out! It’s on obstetric violence and the activist resistance against it in The Netherlands: ‘The undercommons of childbirth and their abolitionist ethics of care: A study into obstetric violence among mothers, midwives, midwives in training, and doulas.

January 2024: New article on reproductive justice and technology: ‘Somatophilic reproductive justice: On technology, feminist biological materialism, and midwifery thinking‘

December 2023: “Call-in” to the field of reproduction: ‘Resistance is Fertile: No Reproductive Justice without Freedom for Palestine‘ (this call can still be signed by repro- workers, scholars, and activists.)

November 2023: Article in the first issue of the Dutch Jacobin: ‘Een knip zonder toestemming heet obstetrisch geweld.’

October 2023: OPROEP VAN ZORGVERLENERS: STOP DE HUMANITAIRE CATASTROFE IN GAZA

September 2023: Article in Dutch newspaper NRC ‘Twijfelen aan de pil is helemaal niet verkeerd‘

September 2023: Article in Dutch newspaper NRC ‘Niet alleen abortus, ook de bevalling is een zaak voor feministen‘

September 2023: Interview on abortion, Grensgevallen, HUMAN

September 2023: Series of poems ‘Krijg een kind met mij’ in Tirade:

August 2023: Paper “Specter(s) of care: A symposium on relationality, midwifery, and reproductive justice to come, published in Frontiers.

May 2023: Paper on fertility and the work of Clarice Lispector, Edouard Glissant & Denise Ferreira da Silva, published in Angelaki.

March 2023: Article on the importance of making abortion with pills available at autonomous community midwifery practices in Medisch Contact.

February 2023: Poetry cycle on abortion, ‘Abortion pastels’, in De Gids.

February 2023: New website for Critical Midwifery Studies with an online course on Humanizing Birth, including lectures, reading materials, and visual notes, available for free.

February 2023: Podcast on autonomy and self-determination in childbirth with Mama’en.

December 2022: Information video on obstetric violence with Brainwash.

October 2022: Article in Dutch news paper Trouw on the danger of losing home birth and autonomous midwifery. Click here for the English version for ICM.

September 2022: New paper out! Obstetric violence: An intersectional refraction through abolition feminism in Feminist Anthropology.

August 2022: One-hour interview on Dutch public radio (NPO1, Human, Brainwash) on abortion, birth and obstetric violence

July 2022: New paper out! A Call for Critical Midwifery Studies by the CMS collective in Birth.

Summer School Humanizing Birth: Launching Critical Midwifery Studies happened! Click on the image below for a visual overview. For more info see: www.criticalmidwiferystudies.com