Rodante van der Waal

Rodante van der Waal (she/they, 1992) is a PhD-candidate and lecturer in Care Ethics at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, and an independent midwife in Amsterdam. She has a BA in midwifery, and a BA and MA in Philosophy (cum laude) from the University of Amsterdam. Her research focus is on obstetric violence and reproductive justice from feminist, decolonial, abolitionist, and care ethics perspectives. Articles and poems from her hand have been published in Violence Against Women, Frontiers, Angelaki, Agenda, Feminist Anthropology, Birth, Nursing Ethics, Trouw, NRC, Jacobin, de Gids, Tirade, nY, and Medisch Contact. She is a member of the Critical Midwifery Studies Collective, het vroede geluid and the Abortion Network Amsterdam, and the editor of Contractions.

New!

February 2024: One of the key-articles of my PhD-thesis is finally 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 and their abolitionist ethic of care’

January 2024: 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