The movie Medzi nami (Among us) about giving births in Slovak hospitals, has caused a stormy public reaction. The documentary directed by Zuzana Límová, which premiered on Monday at the One World - International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, aims to uncover the routines in maternity wards in Slovakia. The movie suggests that often the hospitals do not comply with a humane approach to women in labour, moreover it also shows cases of human rights violations.
Zuzana Límová shot the documentary in the three largest maternity wards in Slovakia, and all three of them belong to the University hospital Bratislava. The filmmakers spent three months in the hospital facilities. One of the biggest controversies it presented is when a doctor himself admits slapping a woman in labour to stop her hysteric reactions.
Women who didn't have a positive experience during their labour don't care whether other women had a positive experience. If we want to push the public discourse further, we need to talk about those negatives, says the film's director. However, the University hospital in Bratislava claims the final version of the screened film is not in line with everyday reality in the maternity wards. Moreover, according to the hospital's general director Juraj Kovács, the movie has purposefully been cut in a way to give the impression of depression and hopelessness. Nevertheless, the hospital has sacked the doctor who boasted about slapping a patient.
According to the Health Minister Tomáš Drucker, the problems shown in the movie are individual human failures and thus should not be generalized.
