Who is in charge of child birth?

When giving birth a woman surely has the right to choose where and how this happens, right? In South Africa, the answer is yes. In many developed countries it is not so simple. In fact it is illegal to make use of a Doula or Midwife to assist in a home birth, to the degree that the midwife may go to prison or the newborn child can be forcibly removed from the mother. Fear of a vaginal birth and the ease of being able to schedule a Caesarean play another major role in the high number of unnecessary surgeries performed globally.

These issues were highlighted and discussed on 20 September when over 1000 screenings of the film “Freedom for Birth” were shown worldwide. The film explores the legal rights and the implications of choice when it comes to childbirth. After the film was shown in various Cape Town locations, members of the audience, consisting of experts in childbirth and lactation, mothers, students and doctors had the opportunity to discuss the relevance of the film in South Africa.

For Andrew Kuti, a Doula and ‘Birthing from Within Mentor’, the film had a personal connection. “Freedom for Birth” focuses on the fate of Kuti’s friend Agnes Gereb, a Hungarian midwife and gynaecologist. Gereb has been under house arrest for nearly two years after assisting more than 3000 mothers like Anna Ternovsky in giving birth at home.

The right to choose has become a human rights issue in the case of Ternovsky vs. Hungary in Strausbourg 2010, where the European Court of Human Rights ruled that “A woman has the human right to choose the circumstances in which they give birth.” The current law against assisted home birth in Hungary violates the Article 8 right to respect for private and family life. This means any woman in the EU can now have a planned home birth with the help of a midwife regardless of that particular country’s laws. Despite this ruling, Gereb is still under house arrest and a petition was circulated last night asking the Hungarian authorities for her liberty to be restored.

In South Africa, many think that doctor’s prefer a higher salary over a woman’s choice. “Ignorance and fear play a major role the amount of selective C-sections in South Africa,” said South African midwife Marianne Littlejohn, a practicing midwife and midwife trainer for 30 years. She feels medical practitioners prefer a tidy schedule of planned C-sections rather that the unpredictability of vaginal birth and will resort to fear mongering to achieve this. One of the first statements made in the film is: “If you keep woman afraid you can make a lot of money.”

Who is ultimately in charge at the birth of a child? The answer should be the mother. Global discussion and education is needed to encourage women to take charge of their own bodies and reclaim childbirth. “If we work together, I think the world can change,” said Ternovsky.

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Image 1: Cape Town’s Deerpark Café audience found the film inspiring.
Image 2: Littlejohn (left) and Kuti
Image 3: Petition for the liberty of Gereb
Image 4: Kuti feels a personal connection to film