Tonight, the spotlight is on mothers across South Africa who are taking a bold stand against systemic failures in maternal healthcare. Known as #LaundryDay, this growing movement sees women and activists bringing their stories directly to the National Department of Health in Pretoria. Hospital bedsheets, bearing testimonies of abuse, neglect, and humiliation experienced during childbirth in public facilities, are being displayed outside the department’s offices — a powerful, visual call for urgent reform. Led by Embrace, the Movement for Mothers, and supported by civil society organisations, the picket coincided with Reproductive Health Month. It comes ahead of the release of South Africa’s first prevalence study on obstetric violence, which found that six in
ten women who gave birth in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal over the past ten years experienced some form of mistreatment. The activists are calling on the Department of Health to acknowledge obstetric violence as a systemic problem, implement Respectful Maternity Care across all facilities, and strengthen accountability mechanisms for mothers’ safety and dignity. #LaundryDay is more than a protest — it’s a movement turning women’s lived experiences into data-driven demands that cannot be ignored. We speak to organisers and mothers leading #LaundryDay to hear firsthand why this movement is growing and what change they hope to see in South Africa’s maternity wards.