ACTIONS

I have organised and participated in international campaigns where women and mothers, and sometimes also babies, have been treated unfairly.

Like the case of a forced cesarean section in Brazil. a forced induction in Spain or the separation of a muslim mother in a Spanish shelter from her baby because of her breastfeeding choices.

My name is Mara (a.k.a Jesusa) better known in social media as Matriactivista.

I have been physically and virtually campaigning for the rights of women for the past 20 years. And in that process I became a specialist on obstetric violence, my definitions and work have been referenced many times in articles and books.

But I have also campaigned against many other issues like the censorship of breastfeeding in social media and I have supported many causes like our right to have an abortion free and as a matter of healthcare

I have campaigned around the world against all forms of abuse towards women, particularly in relation to our sexual and reproductive rights. I raise awareness of all sorts of misogynistic malpractices such as the case of the doctors taken selfies with women in labour while commenting on our bodies in sexualised, objectifying and humiliating manner.

But perhaps the most important action I started, the one I am still most proud of, it was to initiate an international movement against obstetric violence, where inspired by my work with Sheila Kitzinger in Birth Crisis, and in response to some outrageous cartoons demeaning to women, by the Spanish Society of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians, where I encouraged women around the world to take roses to hospitals recounting their stories of birth trauma. I've called it The Roses Revolution and started on the 28th September 2011.

The Roses Revolution is currently a movement that activates in many countries on the 25th of November (International Day Against Violence Towards Women) and has been part of an international exhibition Birth Cultures.

Some midwives in Austria now retrain on the 25th of November while calling it the Day of the Roses Revolution.

And since I decided to celebrate the Roses Revolution on that date, now many activists around the world, consider the 25th of November the day against obstetric violence too.