Campaigners urge Serbia reforms after newborn's death
Serbian rights watchdogs on Tuesday urged authorities to allow chaperones to attend births in hospital, after a newborn died last week during an alleged case of violence by a doctor.
The Balkan country has been rattled since reports surfaced last week of a Roma woman accusing her gynaecologist of "jumping on her stomach" and insulting her ethnicity while she was in labour. Her newborn later died.
The doctor in the northwestern town of Sremska Mitrovica has since been arrested on accusations of jeopardising a person's health, police confirmed, and was in custody.
Following the death, social media has been filled with similar testimonies involving abuse during gynaecological procedures and violent medical staff assaulting patients in Serbia.
Activists say women in the region have faced abusive medical treatment for decades, where discussions of such issues are often taboo.
In Serbia and across the Balkans, a combination of patriarchal values and a weak legal system has allowed for various types of violence against women to often go unchecked.
The Kreni-Promeni advocacy group has said it collected more than 190,000 signatures in a petition calling for reforms that would allow for pregnant women to be accompanied by a partner while giving birth.
The petition was delivered to the Serbian health ministry on Tuesday.
"This is a call to protect all future mothers, so that they can feel safer and that they will bring their babies to the world in a better and less stressful environment," said Marina Pavlic, executive director of Kreni-Promeni, in a statement.
A 2015 survey showed that 10 percent of Serbian women do not want to have another child following traumatic hospital experiences with their first child.
More than 60 percent of those surveyed said they did not feel protected at childbirth, with many women saying they are not kept in the loop about what doctors are doing during procedures.
ALSO READ:
