EAST EUROPE: Midwives Struggle to Deliver Home Births

IPS Monday 24th January, 2011

PRAGUE, Jan 19, 2011 (IPS) - Womens rights in Eastern Europe have been put into the spotlight as a Hungarian midwife faces five years in prison for assisting with home births.Agnes Gereb, who has delivered thousands of babies in home births, is under house arrest on charges of negligent malpractice over five births she assisted at. But the 58-year-olds supporters claim that her case, which follows years of police harassment, is not just a display of power by a conservative and ignorant medical establishment desperate to keep control of a lucrative stream of income, but an attack on womens rights. Donal Kerry, spokesman for the Hungarian Home Birth Community organisation which has been helping Gereb, told IPS: "This is absolutely not just about Agnes but about the denial of womens...

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