Home-birth midwife Gereb’s sentence reduced

Budapest (MTI) – The Budapest Court of Appeals on Thursday reduced a two-year prison sentence of Ágnes Geréb, an obstetrician and midwife sentenced in connection with home births, to a 5-year suspended prison sentence. The sentence barring her from practising her profession was reduced from 10 years to 8 years.

Geréb was arrested by police in October 2010. In February 2012 the appeal court in Budapest sentenced her to two years in prison in connection with two cases of home births, and doubled the working ban from 5 years to 10 years. One involved assisting with the birth of twins, one of whom was born dead. In the other case, she assisted in the birth of a baby who suffered severe complications and died six months later. Geréb and her attorney later appealed for a retrial, citing newly submitted opinions by experts.

The Budapest Court of Appeals approved the submission for retrial in the latter case, establishing on the basis of expert opinion that Geréb had not been professionally responsible for the severe complications in the second case.