A post here on behalf of (and in support of) my OH, Louisa, who attended the Freedom for Birth screening in Dalston last night, organised by One World Birth. Louisa took my x-pro1 along and took some really great photos (IMO).

It was followed by a discussion with the audience involving a midwife, a doula (Rebecca Schiller), an obstetrician (Dr Amali Lokugamage) and a Human Rights barrister (Elizabeth Prochaska).

About the film

Freedom for Birth is a new 60 minute campaigning film that re-frames Human Rights as the most pressing issue in childbirth today.

In many countries around the world, women are being denied the most basic human right of autonomy over their own bodies. They cannot choose how and where to give birth. Those that persist in their desire to have a normal, physiological birth are sometimes forced by judges to surrender to surgery or threatened with having their babies taken away by child welfare services.

In many countries, if a woman wants to have a home birth supported by a midwife, those midwives face criminal prosecution. Some midwives, like Ágnes Geréb in Hungary, are even imprisoned. Freedom for Birth calls for radical reform to the world’s maternity systems so that these Human Rights violations stop and women are afforded real choice as to how and where they give birth.

More information about this topic can be found here:
http://www.oneworldbirth.net
http://www.birthrights.org.uk/wordpress/

Also see:

Taken with my X-pro1 and 35mm