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RODA: Parents in Action

At the end of the two days, I felt as frustrated as my group members. I had no quick fixes I could offer, as many of the roots of these problems lie in the remnants of the totalitarian regime the people have lived under in the past. These repressive regimes have left many people feeling helpless, believing can’t do anything to change conditions.

This visit was sponsored and hosted by a wonderful group of women who have formed RODA - Roditelji u akciji (“Parents in Action”). They are refusing to buckle under and have been fighting for many years to influence change. Their conversations with doctors regarding birth practices have met with little success (like doctors everywhere, they will resist change to the bitter end) but they have had some rewards for their efforts, especially with breastfeeding.

The city authorities in Zagreb have given them access to rooms in a city building for a very nominal rent. It was in desperate need of renovation, so they got stuck into it and have produced some stylish and comfortable results. This space is used for meetings, groups, classes and as a general drop in centre for pregnant women and new mothers.

Some of the core members of the RODA group outside their headquarters: (L to R) Anita, Vedrana, myself and Saradadevii.

Photos showing the condition of the room before renovation.

Transformed into a very comfortable space, this is RODA’s “nest”.

Breastfeeding is a topic they have been pursuing recently, especially the problems associated with the routine early separation of mothers and babies in the maternity hospitals. With the help of some supporters and a friendly billboard company, they have managed to have these huge signs erected in many places around the city, often in very eye-catching places. The message is about the non separation of mothers and babies and translates loosely to “mothers need their babies and babies need their mothers”.

We had some serious fun thinking about billboards that would highlight the plight of women during labour. Getting a camera into a labour room would be very difficult, but with the increasing availability of mobile phones with inbuilt cameras perhaps it will not be so hard. Pictures tell a thousand words, and I explained how the images published by Suzanne Arms of labour rooms in the US in the 1970s were a major breakthrough in exposing the terrible practices being inflicted on women there at that time.

Croatian women also need better access to good information about childbirth and RODA are beginning to work on setting up some prenatal classes in the community. Hospital based programs are part of the coercion process and offer few options and no choices. I am hoping we can work together to devise some appropriate programs that will help inform and prepare women for birth and provide some strategies for getting what they need during labour.

The requirement to adopt EU standards for women’s health, patient’s rights, non-discrimination and human rights will also provide useful tools for RODA. There is no doubt in my mind that improving conditions overall must be seen as feminist and human rights issues, and that this might offer the best change of systemic change.

I can imagine a billboard with a picture of labouring women, lying in a row, with no privacy, little dignity, nothing of their own around them and no company, over a slogan that says “look at this - we wouldn’t do this to animals, why are we doing it to our women?”

Posted by andrea at March 02, 2007 06:28 AM