16 Days of Activism: Solidarity with WHRD Midwife Agnes Gereb
The case brought by the Hungarian State against midwife and women human rights defender (WHRD) Dr Agnes Gereb has a long history of injustice, double standards, and vindictiveness towards independent midwives, but also of international solidarity and support.
Agnes Gereb believes in giving women a choice in birth. This is the reason why after attending some 6500 births in her capacity as an obstetrician at the University of Szeged, Faculty of Medicine, she fully focused on attend births at homes and a birth-house where she attended to approximately 3500 healthy deliveries . This range of experience, over a 17-year period, combined with Dr. Geréb’s pioneering philosophy of supporting undisturbed births at home has made her Hungary’s most experienced birth attendant and an internationally acclaimed midwife. With only one perinatal death in her years of practice, Dr Gereb’s record of delivering healthy babies at homes and in the birth house is far better than that of Hungarian hospitals.
However, Agnes’ beliefs are at odds with the Hungarian maternity system. It’s a system where medical interventions like induction, epidural and episitotomy are routine, where OB/GYNs are paid cash “gratuitities” by patients to “ensure” good outcomes. and where c-section rates in some hospitals are reputed to be at 50%. Although it is legal for mothers to give birth at home in Hungary, any medical professional (without a special license) who helps those women can be criminally charged.
Following a rare case of a perinatal home birth death in 2007, where the baby died directly at birth from a shoulder dystocia complication, Dr Gereb was persecuted by the Hungarian state for malpractice compounded by two other cases of babies delivered at home who subsequently died months later. In 2010 Dr Gereb was found guilty of “endangering life in the conduct of her professional work,” while her medical and midwifery license was suspended for 10 years. Eventually Dr Agnes Gereb spent 70 days in prison followed by house arrest for 3 years and 2 months. In 2014 the Court of Appeal ruled that her confinement conditions should be relaxed for health reasons and consequently they were dissolved, making it possible for Agnes to move freely around the city of Budapest. However she is not permitted to go beyond the region within which the capital is situated, nor is she allowed to advise or consult with pregnant women.
While the removal of house arrest is a welcome development that brought Agnes out of isolation over the past year, her struggle is far from over. There are five current cases against Agnes Gereb, as she continues to be processed through the criminal court with no certainty in the outcome. As mentioned earlier Dr Gereb’s case cannot be regarded separately from the entire medical system in Hungary, which criminalises midwives and favors hospital births where obstetricians hardly ever face criminal charges despite high hospital rate of birth fatalities annually.
Despite the move to regulate home birth practice following the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights against the Hungarian government in the Ternovszky vs Hungary case, upholding the right of women to medical care during home births, the new regulations did little to support independent midwives and came too late to redress the mistreatment that Agnes Gereb had to suffer.
Deepening the divide between obstetricians and midwives, no regulations were enacted to deal with the inequality of treatment experienced by licensed independent midwives in comparison to obstetricians when facing investigation for adverse birth incidents. Licensed Midwives alone remain exposed to criminal investigation.
Being at risk of discrimination and unfair treatment by the legal system is unsurprisingly a common reality shared by the majority of WHRDs, whether they run a women’s empowerment group, a safe abortion hotline or attend to birthing women in their homes.
On a positive note, while Agnes continues in her struggle for justice she has had strong support worldwide from the international community, consisting of fellow birth workers, women’s rights activists, home birth parents and simply like minded people who believe in women’s right to different birthing options. The proof of the international solidarity is in the fact that the recent campaign for Dr Agnes Gereb to raise the sum of Euro 11,800 needed to meet legal and medical fees connected with her court cases was successfully completed before the set deadline. We congratulate Agnes and her support team who work tirelessly to defend her professional reputation and advocate for pregnant women’s rights!
To learn more about WRHD midwife Dr Agnes Gereb and the recent fundraising campaign, visit http://legalfunddragnesgereb.net