My book is out! The ebook is available for free via the link below
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.
Academic
please see my homepage for my most recent publications
Van der Waal, Rodante & Marit van der Pijl (2024) Report on obstetric violence in The Netherlands for the European Commission.
Van der Waal, Rodante (2024) “The ‘dead baby card’ and the early modern accusation of infanticide: situating obstetric violence in the bio- and necropolitics of reproduction.” Feminist Theory
Van der Waal, Rodante & Inge van Nistelrooij (2024) “Shroud waving self-determination: a qualitative analysis of the moral and epistemic dimensions of obstetric violence in the Netherlands.” PLOS ONE.
Van der Waal, Rodante, Inge van Nistelrooij, and Carlo Leget. (2023) “The Undercommons of Childbirth and Their Abolitionist Ethic of Care: A Study into Obstetric Violence among Mother, Midwives (in Training), and Doulas.” Violence Against Women.
Van der Waal, Rodante, Inge van Nistelrooij, Deborah Fox, and Elizabeth Newnham. (2023) “Somatophilic Reproductive Justice: On Technology, Feminist Biological Materialism, and Midwifery Thinking.” Technophany.
van der Waal, R. (2023). Specter(s) of care: A symposium on relationally, midwifery, and reproductive justice to come. Frontiers
van der Waal, R. & Mayra, K. (2023) Obstetric Violence. In: Gender-Based Violence: A Comprehensive Guide. Springer.
van der Waal, R., Schoof, K., van Rooden, A. (2023). When the egg breaks the chicken bleeds: Unsettling colonially through fertility in Lispector’s The Passion According to G.H. and The Chronicles. Angelaki.
Van der Waal, R., Mayra, K., Horn, A., & Chadwick, R. (2022). Obstetric violence: An intersectional refraction through abolition feminism. Feminist Anthropology.
CMS collective (2022) A call for critical midwifery studies: Confronting systemic injustice in sexual, reproductive, maternal, and newborn health. Birth.
Van der Waal, R. & Van Nistelrooij, I. (2022) Reiminaging relationality for reproductive care: Understanding obstetric violence as “separation”. Nursing Ethics.
Van der Waal, R., Mitchell, V., Van Nistelrooij, I., Bozalek, V. (2021): Obstetric violence within students’ rite of passage: The reproduction of the obstetric subject and its racialised (m)other. Agenda.
Mayra, K., van der Waal, R., Chadwick, R. (2021): ‘Bodies that birth’ and the violence it bears: In conversation with Rachelle Chadwick. Agenda.
Van der Waal, R. & Hermsen, J. (2020): Violence Against Women: Murder, Subjectivity and Childbirth. In: Biopodor Y Derecho. Violencia contra las mujeres. Ed. Blázquez Ruiz, F.J. Navarra: Thomas Reuters Limited.
Nistelrooij, I. & van der Waal, R. (2019): Moederschap en geboorte: relationaliteit als alternatieve ethische benadering. TGE29, nr.2.
Van der Waal, R. (2018): The Pregnant Posthuman. In: Posthuman Glossary. Ed. Braidotti, R & Hlavajova, M. Bloomsbury Academic: London
Poems
‘XTC baby’, nY, Februari 2024.
‘Krijg een kind met mij’, Tirade, September 2023.
‘Abortuspastellen‘, de Gids, February 2023.
General publications (Dutch articles, opinion pieces, etc.)
Van der Waal, Rodante. “An Episiotomy without Consent is Called Obstetric Violence.” (“Een knip zonder toestemming heet obstetrisch geweld.”) Jacobin, January 14, 2024.
Houwink ten Cate, Lotte, and Rodante van der Waal. “Doubting Hormonal Contraceptives is not Wrong” (“Twijfelen aan de pil is helemaal niet verkeerd.”) NRC, September 26, 2023.
Houwink ten Cate, Lotte, and Rodante van der Waal. “Not only Abortion, also Childbirth is a Feminist Issue” (“Niet alleen abortus, ook de bevalling is een zaak voor feministen.”) NRC, September 15, 2023.
Vrije Keuze Coalitie, Manifesto “Abortion is Care” (“Abortus is zorg”).
Article in Medisch Contact on making the abortion pill available at autonomous community midwives, March 2023.
Article in Dutch news paper Trouw on the danger of losing home birth and autonomous midwifery. Click here for the English version on ICM’s website, October 2022.
Lecture on birth, postpartum psychosis and the spirit of the revolution, Moeder op drift symposium, Stichting Psychiatrie en Filosofie, NL, June 2021.
Van der Waal, R. (2021): Met vrouwen en vroedvrouwen zijn op internationale vrouwendag. Zorgethiek.nu
Interview together with Jennie Joseph, Jaleesa Milan, Bahareh Goodarzi en Bouchra Skakni: Institutioneel racisme in de geboortezorg is dodelijk. Tijdschrift voor verloskundigen, January 2021.
Interview: Een baring doorbreekt de normale structuren van het bewustzijn. Filosofie Magazine, April 2019.
Interview together with Joke Hermsen: Opnieuw beginnen maakt menselijk. Filosofie Magazine, January 2017.
Van der Waal, R. (2016): Opgetekend in hartslagen: balanceren op het afwezige begin van de mens. In: Hoe de dingen ons bewegen. Ed Klein Zandvoort, B & Ruijgrok, C. Trebelsee: Amsterdam
Rodante van der Waal 