If found guilty, she could face imprisonment from one to five years.

How can a qualified doctor, a highly experienced gynaecologist and a trained midwife, who was responding to the urgent needs of a mother and her baby be treated like this? And how can this happen in a civilised country, a member of the European Union?

The story of Agnes Gereb is the story of homebirthing in modern Hungary.  A story that shows how Hungary, since its return to full independence in 1990, continues to restrict free choice to its citizens in the hugely important area of childbirth. From the all- powerful Board of Obstetricians down to the local police, the Hungarian state has continually tried to force expectant mothers and their partners to give birth in hospital.  But there have always been couples determined to choose their own way to birth and who needed to find someone who could help them fulfill their wishes.  Agnes Gereb took on that role when after seventeen years of hospital service she decided in 1991 to become an independent midwife. She was prepared to face the risk of heavy fines and imprisonment to help parents to satisfy their desire to have their babies at home.

Now, nearly 20 years later and with over 3,500 healthy homebirths behind her, she still encounters incredible resistance within the Hungarian establishment to home birthing. She has been struck off the doctor’s register by a licensing body which dogmatically opposes homebirth and, even before Tuesday’s detention, she and 4 colleague midwives are currently before the courts facing further serious criminal charges. Like all other independent midwives and the parents of homebirth babies, she is continually exposed to levels of harassment and intimidation from police, ambulance and hospital staff whenever a homebirth delivery has to transfer to the hospital system. Her arrest was the logical climax of a campaign of vilification and criminalisation which has last nearly twenty years and which is rooted in the determination of a clique of obstetricians to maintain their own power and earning potential from hospital birth. Obstetrics is one of the most lucrative  branches of Hungary's supposedly free healthcare system, in which parents expect to pay up to a month's salary to the doctor who, according to law, must be present at each birth.

Also, Agnes Gereb's work is not restricted to homebirth as she has long represented the opposite end to the over-medicalised, over-interventionist practice of hospital birth. Her work proves that it is possible for midwives to take over the doctor's role, in Hungary, as the main health-care professional at birth.

The persecution of Hungary's most experienced midwife in gentle, natural birth continues, despite a 1998 decision by the Parliamentary Ombudsman, confirming that the Constitution affords mothers the right to give birth where they wish. But foot-dragging by successive governments has prevented any regulations from actually being implemented. As a consequence we expect both the Hungarian Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights to rule against the Hungarian Government in the near future for failing to draw-up and introduce the necessary regulations, and to order Parliament to do so without further delay.

In the meantime citizens are exposed to the double-speak of a state which admits a mother’s right to choose her home as a birth location, but prevents her from doing this on the pretext that the practical conditions for conducting homebirth safely do not exist. By continually failing to introducing legislation to support the practicalities of home birthing they have tried to remove homebirth as a birthing choice for its citizens. But many parents still insist on doing what their Constitution allows through the services provided by Agnes Gereb and a small band of independent midwives. These midwives have been refused the ”necessary” licenses to operate legally, but are prepared to give their professional support to parents despite being under the constant threat of arrest and imprisonment. The state has, until now, not taken the logical next step of prosecuting the parents of homebirth children, as well as the unprotected professional service providers.  We parents remain baffled and desperately saddened that the Hungarian State has yet again chosen to attack not only a true servant of the people but a highly ethical and professionally gifted doctor and midwife.

We are taking to the streets to protest against the mistreatment of Agnes Gereb, against her unjust imprisonment and against all the criminal charges that have been set against her and her fellow midwives. Our protest will also highlight the continued neglect and abuse experienced by Hungarian citizens who simply wish to exercise their constitutional right to deliver their children at home. We plan multiple actions and demonstrations in protest against Agnes Gereb’s continuing imprisonment. We are appealing for international support for her immediate release and for the swift introduction of progressive homebirth regulations. We appeal to the domestic and international media to publish the facts of this case and to expose the human rights violations occurring presently in Hungary to both independent midwives and to its own citizens.

For any further information or help in the above case please contact either

Donal Kerry          (mobile)  0036309242190     email: Ez az e-mail-cím a szpemrobotok elleni védelem alatt áll. Megtekintéséhez engedélyeznie kell a JavaScript használatát.

Or

Bea Bodrogi         email: Ez az e-mail-cím a szpemrobotok elleni védelem alatt áll. Megtekintéséhez engedélyeznie kell a JavaScript használatát.

Or

Monika Schanda   email: Ez az e-mail-cím a szpemrobotok elleni védelem alatt áll. Megtekintéséhez engedélyeznie kell a JavaScript használatát.

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