site.btaPregnant Bulgarian Woman Fights Court Battle to Be Able to Deliver at Home under Medical Supervision

Pregnant Bulgarian Woman Fights Court Battle to Be Able to Deliver at Home under Medical Supervision

Sofia, June 15 (BTA) - A pregnant Bulgarian women is fighting a court battle to be able to deliver her baby at home under medical supervision, said the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) Wednesday. She has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights with legal assistance from the BHC.

Bulgarian legislation makes it imperative to give birth in hospital and medical staff who assist birth at another location, including home delivery, face penalty.

The plaintiff, who is identified by the BHC only with her initial, D., wants the court to oblige the state not to apply administrative and penal measures against the medics who would assist her forthcoming delivery at home.

The BHC also wants to Court to consider the case as a priority.

This will be D's third delivery. The previous two, both of them in a hospital, are described by the BHC as traumatic and accompanied by pressure and humiliation.

The BHC argues that the pressure that Bulgarian legislation puts on women to give birth, against their will, in conditions of institutionalized hospital environment, where delivery is treated as a medical risk rather that as a natural process, and is managed by doctors against the will and dignity of the woman, as well as against the health needs of her child, is a gross violation of her right to personal and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

The plaintiff bore her first child in 2008 and her second in 2012. The first proceeded by medical practices undertaken in spite of her express refusal: the doctors administered Oxytocin and Prostaglandin to stimulate contractions in spite of her desire for a natural birth, and applied the Kristeller maneuvre, as a result of which the baby was born with a broken clavicle, hematoma, oedema on the head and had difficult adaptation.

D's baby was given baby formula against her will and she was not allowed to see it in the first two days after delivery.

For all that, D. paid the hospital fees of 500 leva and an extra 600 leva she was asked to pay under the table.

For the second delivery D. did not go to the hospital until it was imminent. Before that she paid a fee of 1,960 leva which was supposed to cover water birth, the presence of the father and a doula during the childbirth. The water birth was a bad experience: the bath was first filled with cold water, then refilled but finally almost emptied to the convenience of the medical personnel. D. also had to argue with them about the pose she chose.

The BHC director for legal matters, Margarita Ilieva, is quoted as saying that women in Bulgaria are put to 'a military regimen' while they give birth. They have two options: rude treatment and procedures against their will accompanied by hefty charges in hospital, or a risk to their and their babies' health during unassisted home delivery. "Women cannot avoid these two evils due to a restrictive legislation by which the State exercises unnecessary and disproportionate interference in the personal life of mothers, which is in keeping with a sexist culture for control over women's bodies," says Ilieva.