Pregnancy and the birth of a child is a bright, big, and important event. It’s about the laws of the universe and love. But, in the opinion of many medical professionals, women living with drug addiction in Ukraine have no right to it. If you choose to inject, you deserve to die.
In the film “A Maternity House as a Place of Punishment,” the representatives of the All-Ukrainian Association of Addicted Women (VONA) talk about their personal experience of childbirth and motherhood.
Tatiana Lebed: “Obstetric violence is very scary. Because you are very vulnerable at that moment. You have an unprotected baby inside of you, you need support yourself. The violence. You don’t have to be physically beaten, they don’t have to do anything to you. They just let you know: What kind of mother are you?
Svetlana Makogon: “All the wards looked at me like some kind of terrible monster. They wouldn’t let me feed my children for a week. They told me that someone like you should not give birth. How could God give you these children in the first place. There was a danger that they wouldn’t give me the children. So I had to steal the children from the hospital and leave.”
Irina Emelyanova: “Basically, situations of violence have followed us all our lives when we were using street drugs. But one of the most memorable situations was my birth. They told me: either you will die yourself, or you will not have a normal baby.”
The main thing in this situation is not to remain silent. Violence always happens in silence.
Watch the movie, look at these brave and beautiful women, and don’t be silent!
Please don’t forget to turn on subtitles before watching!
