PACKAGE PROBLEMS:The Birth Reform Alliance said mothers have been forced to undergo a ‘childbirth routine package,’ without regard paid to individual situations

Taipei Times
Date: May 08, 2015
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Several childbirth autonomy advocates yesterday urged the government to draw up clinical childbirth guidelines to end unnecessary procedures and medical interventions that have left many mothers traumatized by what they called an otherwise beautiful experience.

“Mother’s Day is just around the corner, but the journey to motherhood is particularly excruciating for Taiwanese mothers, most of whom have been forced to undergo a ‘childbirth routine package,’ regardless of their individual conditions, that can include an enema, shaving, fasting, artificial rupture of membranes, inducement of labor and the surgical incision of the perineum,” Birth Reform Alliance at Taiwan member Chen Mei-yi (陳玫儀) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday morning.

Chen said the routine package has been in place for years, despite several international studies having advised against some of the procedures.     [FULL  STORY]