Women’s Empowerment & Childbirth: Sub-Saharan Africa Inequalities

The Lancet Editorial on childbirth offered an essential critique of the false dichotomy between overmedicalisation and the natural birth ideology, drawing attention to the global disempowerment of women during childbirth.1 Although evidence-based, women-centred care and the recognition that information is power are universally relevant, these principles expose profound inequalities in sub-Saharan Africa. Choosing between medical and natural birth presumes accessible and functioning health-care infrastructures—a luxury out of reach for millions of women in the region.