Tech & Rights

A Czech Childbirth Nightmare

The mother only wished for a safe, worry-free birth, but instead went through a delivery that left her with post-traumatic stress disorder.

by The League of Human Rights
(Image: Kelly DeConnick - Flickr/CC content)
A Czech woman, Mrs. Stella, gave birth to her daughter in a maternity hospital in Neratovice. She wished to give birth safely, with the help and emphatic support of healthcare professionals with the utmost consideration towards the child. Instead, she experienced a nightmare.

Immediately upon arriving at the hospital, she had to sign a multi-page document titled "Leading the labor and parturition." As Stella was already in labor and could not concentrate on reading the text, she asked the personnel to acquaint her with its content. They only responded by saying that it was a "consent to birth."

Given that Stella did not understand the content, nor was she allowed to read the document peacefully, she decided not to sign the agreement. So from the very beginning, she fell under the "problematic" label.

Mother's wishes ignored

Stella gave the staff her birth plan when she arrived at the hospital, but it was completely ignored. The partner present — the child's father — was told that their completely legitimate demands would not be fulfilled, but were not given a reason. Contrary to the wishes of Stella, following interventions occurred:

  • The use of oxytocin, positioning an awkward and inappropriate supine position with legs on the handles, and episiotomies (despite verbal disagreement); failure of the placenta to be processed into nutritional supplement (capsule), and invasion of privacy at birth (5-6 people had entered the delivery room by the end of the procedure).
  • Several interventions on the baby's body performed by the staff without explanation and in direct conflict with the will of both parents — e.g. cutting of the umbilical cord immediately after birth, without letting the valuable cord blood pulse.
  • The attending physician denied a completely healthy client outpatient care after childbirth, even after a telephone consultation in which the healthy newborn was mandatorily taken into care by his pediatrician.

Post-traumatic stress

The entire childbirth became a really scary experience for Stella and her partner, an experience with which the family has struggled to cope with to this day. In the first year after the birth, Stella was forced to seek psychotherapeutic help, because she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the birth.

Despite this, she decided to stand against such treatment. She filed a complaint against the staff procedure together with the Czech League of Human Rights. After the hospital rejected their claim, they began a legal case against the facility. Because of Stella's efforts, there is hope that no other mother will experience a similar nightmare in a Czech hospital.

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