Invisible suffering and normalized cruelty: The case of the exclusion of femicide in pregnant women from the WHO definition of Maternal Mortality

Abstract

This article problematizes the concept of maternal mortality of the current WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) with the aim of analyzing the repercussions that entails the exclusion of femicide in pregnant women from the recognized causes of maternal death. The WHO is the reference institution from which the development of international normative frameworks for the design of public health policies is coordinated, hence the relevance of focusing this analysis on the definition given of the concept from this organization. This analysis is based on a systematic search of the international literature published on the phenomenon of femicide in pregnant women, on which documentary analysis is used as a methodological strategy. The hypothesis will be defended that the category of maternal mortality proposed by the WHO makes invisible the forms of suffering that mainly affect subaltern women in each country and makes visible those that afflict the most privileged women. This exclusion has an impact on the normalization of a certain economy of cruelty, in which suffering is channeled - according to race, class and sex - through global coordination in the field of public health policy.