For the longest time, Shambhavi Srivastava refused to have a biological child—not because she didn’t want one but because she had no faith in women’s healthcare in the country. 

After marriage, she had two abortions. She couldn’t forget the “judgement” and “unsolicited guilting” she encountered, first at Manipal Hospital and then at Motherhood Hospital in Bengaluru. Worst of all, the paternalism was disguised as “medical care”.

But that changed in 2023, when she started going to Aastrika Midwifery Centre, a birthing facility that claims to be an........

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