Ágnes Geréb

Who is Ágnes Geréb?

Ágnes Geréb is a Hungarian gynaecologist/midwife and psychologist, the pioneer of father's participation in deliveries at hospital and homebirth in Hungary. She founded the Napvilág birthing centre. Geréb has helped deliver 3,500 babies at home.

Geréb's license to practice medicine was revoked for 3 years in 2007 as punishment for a 2000 death of a newborn and in 2009 she was charged for manslaughter relating to an earlier home birth when a baby died after a difficult labour.

She was arrested on October 5, 2010, in Budapest, after being accused of negligent malpractice. She faces a long prison sentence. Her lawyer, Andrea Pelle, claims that the protocols of the trial were falsified. The arrest sparked outrage among home birth activists worldwide. On 23 November 2010, the British Royal College of Midwives condemned Gereb's detention. On 21 December 2010, Gereb was freed from prison and placed under house arrest. On March 23, 2011, she received a 2-year minimum security prison sentence.