BACKGROUND:
Obstetric violence is a form of gender-based violence that affects women and individuals with the capacity for pregnancy in clinical settings worldwide. This study addresses a lack of conceptual clarity and systemic accountability for obstetric mistreatment.

OBJECTIVES:
To examine the concept of obstetric violence culture and establish a working definition for application to practice, research, and policy in perinatal care.

METHODS:
Rodgers’ evolutionary method guided the analysis and data organization into antecedents, attributes, and consequences.A systematic search using the phrase "obstetric violence" was conducted in CINAHL and PubMed databases. Articles published in English between November 1, 2020, and December 31, 2024, were included.

RESULTS:
Sixty-two articles were included. Antecedents reflected the historical medicalization of birth, professional hierarchies, and structural inequities. Attributes – disbelief of harm, victim blaming, revictimization, and disempowerment – mirror those identified in rape culture. Consequences spanned birthing people, clinicians, and systems, including mistrust, moral distress, and institutional silence. The resulting definition frames obstetric violence culture as an embedded and normalized set of practices and beliefs that sustain mistreatment in perinatal care.

CONCLUSIONS:
Obstetric violence culture is not an outlier, but a pervasive and institutionalized framework to be systematically dismantled.

KEY MESSAGE:
Obstetric violence culture shares mechanisms of rape culture and is upheld through denial, professional hierarchy, institutional silence, and clinical norms. Clinicians have an ethical obligation to recognize and disrupt obstetric violence culture. Structural change, clinical education, and institutional accountability are necessary to uphold patient autonomy and dignity. This is particularly relevant and necessary work in response to ICM’s Congress 2026 theme of "One Million More Midwives." Midwifery expansion has the potential to demonstrably shift this current culture. Midwives must play an important role in disrupting the culture that supports acts of obstetric violence. Poster session 4 (Group B)