With the growing concern of human rights in health, the word “violence” is being used to describe apparent disrespectful treatment received by women by either health care practitioners or health care systems. As the definition of violence in health care settings broadens, questions arise over the impact of the term in describing objective reality. Specifically, does use of the term “violence” inadvertently disempower the women that it is meant to empower? This article explores the changing use of the term “violence” and specifically draws on evidence in a South African labor ward, where phenomena such as silence and limited social support have cultural underpinnings that contradict labels of structural or obstetric violence. As global research on obstetric violence in disadvantaged communities grows, choice of terminology will become more important in filtering results into medical policy and practice.

随着人们对健康领域人权的日益关注，“暴力”一词被用来形容医疗保健从业者或医疗保健系统对妇女明显不尊重的对待。随着医疗保健环境中暴力的定义不断扩大，人们对该术语在描述客观现实方面的影响产生了疑问。具体来说，“暴力”一词的使用是否无意中剥夺了女性本应赋予的权力？本文探讨了“暴力”一词的使用变化，并特别借鉴了南非产房的证据，那里的沉默和有限的社会支持等现象具有与结构性或产科暴力标签相矛盾的文化基础。随着全球对弱势社区产科暴力的研究不断增长，