Belgrade, Serbia—Biljana Cicic-Stanic still bristles when she remembers the pain, violence, and humiliation she endured while giving birth to her son in Serbia, an experience many women say is normal in the Balkan country’s hospitals.
“They put you in a bed and require you to lie motionless, while someone violently opens your cervix, pierces your membrane and tells you to be quiet,” she added. The issue again hit the headlines after Marica Mihajlovic—an ethnic Roma woman—accused her gynecologist of “jumping on her stomach” and racially abusing her while she was in labor earlier this year.
Serbia’s Minister of Health Danica Grujicic largely dismissed the accounts, saying “everyone has different tolerance for pain.”Women in Serbia are regularly subjected to various forms of violence at maternity clinics and hospitals, a 2022 report by leading lawyers found, including having their stomach pushed during labor and being given invasive procedures without consent.
Brankovic said medical staff largely ignored her ahead of the procedure, as they watched a popular reality TV show, and told her to “stop being hysterical” when she called for help as the fetus emerged.
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