With the “Motherhouse, not a slaughterhouse” protest called by the feminist association “Women’s Solidarity”, the public in Serbia opposed violence during childbirth on Friday, prompted by the death of a baby whose mother accused the doctor of the hospital in Sremska Mitrovica of the violent birth.
The prosecutor’s office in that city launched an investigation, and during the protest unofficial information arrived that the doctor had been arrested.
The Serbian MUP later officially confirmed that the police arrested a gynecologist at thr General Hospital M. M. (43), who is charged with a criminal offense against people’s health, reports Hina.
Earlier on Friday, the protest was held in front of the hospital in Sremska Mitrovica, and was preceded by a series of announcements on social networks that the mother Marica Mihajlović was a victim of violence during childbirth, after which her baby died.
Mihajlović described in detail for N1 what she suffered, starting with the fact that the doctor refused to perform a caesarean section, and that he was extremely rude and violent during the birth, which ultimately caused the death of the newborn.
At the protest, several hundred women, among them mothers whose babies died during childbirth, blocked traffic in front of the Ministry of Health.
Along with cries demanding the arrest and imprisonment of the doctor from Sremska Mitrovica, banners were displayed: “Motherhouse, not a torture chamber”, “A woman gave birth to everything, a woman will give birth to a revolution”, “Justice for Marica”, “Hospitals, not slaughterhouses”. ” and “Prison for Maksimović”.
Numerous mothers in labor shared their experiences of violence during childbirth on social networks.
Some of them spoke at the gathering, talking about their painful and tragic experiences, demanding an investigation and sanctions for the suspected doctor, as well as detailed supervision and control by the relevant ministry and the medical chamber in all maternity hospitals throughout Serbia in order to prevent similar cases.
Jelana Ivković from Ruma, one of the participants in the protest, told the Belgrade media that she was also a victim of the doctor M.M. because of whose mistake her son died after giving birth at the end of November 2022.
The relevant minister, Danica Grujičić, expressed her condolences to the family of the deceased baby and announced that an internal inspection was carried out at the hospital, “which means that gynecologists who did not take part in the treatment or the birth, based on the medical records, make an analysis of the event”.
According to the Ministry of Interior’s announcement, the arrested doctor was detained for up to 48 hours, and within that period he will be brought to the prosecutor’s office for further proceedings along with a criminal report.
