‘Standing alongside’ and in solidarity with Traveller women: minority ethnic women’s narratives of racialized obstetric violence

This study is an exploration of Traveller women’s experience of pregnancy loss in Ireland. It examines the individual, interpersonal and structural factors which mediate Traveller women’s experience. Through the utilisation of a participant structured interview influenced by the biographical narrative interpretive method (BNIM), this study has explored the pregnancy loss experience of eleven Traveller women spanning over a 30-year period. Using the voice-centred relational (VCR) method of analysis, this study suggests that the broader structural landscape of discrimination, racism, sexism, marginalisation and inequality is integral to understanding Traveller women’s lived experiences, including pregnancy loss. It highlights Traveller women’s experiences of disrespectful and abusive treatment by health services during and after pregnancy loss; this includes neglect, abandonment, non-consented treatment and discrimination. It argues that Traveller women’s experiences of pregnancy loss are shaped and pronounced by gendered racism and suggests that these experiences are racialized obstetric violence on the basis of gender and ethnicity