CHILDBIRTH – RIGHTS – PANDEMIC

Monitoring Report on Violations of the Human Rights of Women in the Provision of Childbirth Care in Healthcare Facilities in Slovakia During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Editor: Janka Debrecéniová

Authors: Janka Debrecéniová – Miroslava Kotríková Rašmanová – Lýdia Marošiová
 
The publication CHILDBIRTH – RIGHTS – PANDEMIC (published in Slovak in April 2021) presents the results of monitoring designed to identify and describe violations of the human rights of women in the provision of antenatal and childbirth care in healthcare facilities in Slovakia during the period between early March 2020 and the end of June 2020 (a period often referred to as the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic). The monitoring was carried out using several methods, the primary source of information being an internet survey among women about their experience with the provision of healthcare before, during and after childbirth during the said period. An English version of the publication will be published before the end of this year.

The findings from the monitoring show that the pregnancy- and childbirth-related violations of human rights and internationally recognised medical standards that have already been documented in CDA´s two previous reports, WOMEN – MOTHERS – BODIES I and II, not only persisted during the first wave of the pandemic, but they were often either of much more massive extent or intensity, or acquired new forms. In the wake of the pandemic, Slovakia’s institutionalised childbirth care system has once again proved not to be based on human rights and the latest evidence-based medical standards and recommendations of internationally recognised professional organisations. The experience from the first wave of the pandemic has also shown that the existing system has no real ambitions to satisfy the needs and rights of those whom it should serve in the first place. Quite the opposite, in situations where pregnant and birthing women and their newborns need special support and protection the system is highly prone to harm them even more than before.

English summaries of WOMEN – MOTHERS – BODIES I and II that document and analyse a number of serious and system-level violations of women’s human rights related to childbirth care provided in healthcare facilities across Slovakia are available here.

 

Download:

© Publication (EN – pdf; 13,3 MB)

© Slovak version (SK – pdf; 8,1 MB)

 
The project Let’s Take the Needs of Women in Childbirth Seriously! Promoting Women’s Human Rights in Public Policies in the Field of Health is supported by the ACF – Slovakia programme, financed from the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014 – 2021. The programme is managed by the EKOPOLIS Foundation in partnership with Nadácia otvorenej spoločnosti – Open Society Foundation (NOS – OSF) and the Carpathian Foundation.