hello, this is bbc news. the headlines — a change in guidance on care homes — from tuesday, residents in england will be able to visit relatives without having to self—isolate when they return. india becomes the first country to record 400,000 coronavirus infections in a single day. five people are arrested on suspicion of terror offences, including a 16—year—old boy, as police target three locations across the uk. and there's a warning that most of the uk's summer music festivals could be called off because they can't get covid cancellation insurance. now on bbc news, our world.

in bosnia herzegovina, the health care system only allows giving birth in hospitals. we report on plans for a secret home birth. amira is fighting for the right to have a home birth. women in the balkan region are routinely exposed to brutal treatment in hospital during pregnancy and childbirth, and they are demanding change. the united nations has uncovered the scale of the abuse. violence against women in childbirth is so normalised that it is not yet considered violence against women. to protect herself, amira has hired a foreign midwife who is taking a risk to help her deliver the baby at home.

if the police came and said "who are you? what are you doing?", hopefully reasonableness will prevail. can amira reclaim one of her life's most important moments? sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina. amira cerimagic is a doctor and an activist and productive rights. she is preparing for the arrival of herfourth child. she wants to have a home birth, but in bosnia and herzegovina, that's not an option. the health system here only allows births in hospitals.

bosnia and herzegovina is one of europe's poorest countries. its health care system was destroyed by the bosnian war in the �*90s. 30% of medical staff were lost. and today, the system remains underfunded and understaffed. but although hospital births are safe in this country, hundreds of women say they've experienced mistreatment and violence in state maternity wards. amira is one of them.

a home birth can be as safe as a hospital birth for women like amira who have straightforward pregnancies and who are having their second or subsequent child.

through activism and working as a doctor, amira knows the health system well. but although she feels empowered by the idea of a home birth, her husband elmir still has some doubts. in a home birth that takes place within a health system, a midwife is present throughout the labour. but while in many other european countries midwives are trained to work independently, here they can't make clinic decisions without

the approval of a doctor. in countries where home births are allowed, only around 1—2% of women choose them. but in some places, the pandemic has made them more popular. in neighbouring croatia, home births are up by almost one third. but for amira, having her baby at home is her best chance

of avoiding another traumatic birth. the family is getting everything ready.

earlier in her pregnancy, amira wrote to a hospital to register her wishes to have a home birth and to ask for a midwife to assist her. with no support from the state, amira is worried she won't be able to find a midwife.

but she knows there are women who have arranged home births outside the health system. dzenita is one of them.

amira may be planning this birth in secret, but she's not alone. she's one of thousands of women in many countries across the balkan region who have come together demanding an end to abusive pregnancy care. it started in 2018 when, in neighbouring croatia, mp ivana nincevic—lesandric made a speech in parliament.

after that, i came home and i told my husband what happened to me and i googled it because ijust, at that moment, i wanted to see is there any chance that this happened to someone else? and then i saw that it's something that is normal — it's happening to everyone in 2018. ivana nincevic—lesandric stood up and used the word "uterus", "pain" and "painful procedure" in croatian parliament. daniella drandic from the croatian campaigning organisation parents in action had begun to collect testimonies from women experiencing violence in hospitals.

when we think of maternity services, we think of happy mothers and beautiful little babies. but what we weren't thinking about was many of the human rights violations that were happening behind those closed doors. unfortunately, this is something that is quite normal in croatia and throughout the region, and it's something that ivana put on the table. she shone a very striking light on it. i mean, what would i and all

of these women should say about our "awkward" situation? we have a person here coming to you and telling you what she experienced and telling it to you because i want things to change. 0n the back of ivana's speech, women started using the hashtag #breakthesilence to expose abusive treatment during gynaecological procedures. 45 minutes of stitching with no anaesthesia. . i don't want to have more children ever again. - the nurses in the labour room called me a cow, an awful mother, an idiot. they performed a surgical miscarriage with no anaesthesia and without informing me. they forced me to have - another caesarean section. they told me i would kill my baby

if i did not agree to an induction. the doctor asked me why i had screwed. i felt and feel abused. we really started asking each other, you know, is this type of behaviour or this type of care acceptable on other wards in a hospital, and the resounding conclusion from that was that it wasn't acceptable. the health minister of croatia change in 2020 and although there haven't been any law changes criminalissing this type of violence, the social media movement has broken down taboos. violence against women in childbirth is so normalised that it is not yet considered violence against women. in 2019, the united nations special rapporteur for violence against women, dubravka simonovic, investigated the extent of this type of violence, and spoke about her findings in the general assembly.

new social movements, like break the silence, have shed light on the patterns of mistreatment and violence that women suffer, demonstrating that mistreatment and violence during childbirth is widespread and ingrained in health systems all over the world. to protect herself from being mistreated in hospital, amira has found a british midwife to help with the birth.

as well as paying paul's fees, she's rented an apartment for him for three weeks. hello, welcome. hi, amira. please enter. finally, thank you. but this is about so much more than money. we meet in person.

for amira, it's about regaining control of the process of birth. how are you feeling today? how's baby and how are you? i'm feeling, every night, when i go to bed, i think this is it and i was glad paul is in bosnia. i'm here foryou. i'm your midwife, that means i'm on yourjourney. it is yourjourney, and ijust come with you on that journey. later that day, paul follows amira home to meet her family. i'm quite relaxed about following the woman's choice, wherever she is. because home births are unregulated by law, paul is also taking a risk. people might challenge our authority, why we're here, why we're providing for home birth. if the police came and said, "who are you, what are you doing?" and take your laptop, your phone, even take you to an interview at the police station, hopefully reasonableness will prevail.

although home births can be both rewarding and safe, emergencies can happen. despite all the preparations, amira has a one in ten chance of having to go to hospital during labour but with no, guarantee of an ambulance, it would be paul and her partner's job to get her there. yeah, we can turn the water on, like, for the shower and do the shower and put the hose and bring it to here. 0k, 0k, iunderstand, iunderstand. paul is doing a practice run of the birth with elmir. so, inside is only amira? the husband can get in if... no, no, i don't want to do this. sometimes, sometimes the woman just needs to lean back and she needs the man behind her — sometimes. 0k.

paul has worked on five different continents, enabling hundreds of women to have home births. i have one question, in all this process, who is the boss? - you or somebody else? the woman is always the boss, she's the decision—maker, but i will give very strong, very clear advice if anything is a worry. yeah, but i know her and she always push to the limits, and i want - to know, if you recognise some bad signs? - yeah, for sure. if i saw any concern with mother or baby, i'm very clear — very, very clear — about it. so, you will decide in momentj when will we go into hospital? yes, if you needed to

transfer, i would say "you need to transfer now." however, it's still amira's choice because the woman makes the decision. ok, but i ask if you - recognise the bad sign? i would recognise the bad signs, yes. and i'm always giving you the information. i'm very honest and i might seem very gentle, but i'm actually very strong when it's very important. i understand. crying. crying and laughing.

amira was able to give birth in the way she wanted, and now she's campaigning for change in the health system. she's hired lawyers and is taking the government to court to make it easier for others to choose home birth. for amira, this is only the beginning.

we approached the institutions amira requested a midwife from. they sent us the following statement... we also approached the ministry of health of bosnia and herzegovina, but they didn't reply.

hello there. a change of month will bring a change to the weather. now, april was quite a quiet month, wasn't it? there was a good deal of sunshine around. clear skies by day led to frosty nights. it was the frostiest april for over 60 years and there was a lot of dry and there was a lot of dry weather, probably going to be one of the driest aprils on record. but the story will change as we move through the first week of may. the frost being replaced by some rain or showers and blustery winds. temperatures staying disappointing for the first week of may. now, high pressure is staying with us for sunday. so that does mean that it again could be a frosty start and there will be a dry, sunny start but not long before the showers really start to develop

as we go through into the afternoon. some of these heavy and slow—moving. top temperatures between 6—111. but the real change arrives on bank holiday monday, of course. this area of low pressure moving in off the atlantic. the centre of the low looks likely to track across northern ireland into southern scotland, northern england and wales during monday morning. perhaps not arriving until east anglia and the southeast corner until later in the afternoon and it willjust be showery to the far north of scotland. but windy for all, especially unexposed coast into the southwest, pretty rough seas here. the temperatures really disappointing i'm afraid for an early bank holiday monday. this could be one of the coldest on record with the cloud, the wind and the rain around. that low pressure will track its way steadily eastwards and still plenty of isobars on the charts and the wind direction will be traced all the way back to the north. that means it's a cool source and that will be pushing in further showers. turning wintry again

to higher ground in scotland and across the peaks and pennines and maybe through north wales as well. plenty of showers around on tuesday and a disappointing cool feel especially when you factor in the strength and the direction of the wind with just the high of 7—12. moving out of tuesday into wednesday, it could be the best day of the week in terms of drier weather and we have this little ridge of high pressure building before another low moves in. so a relatively quiet day, and still that biting northerly wind driving in some showers into the north, but there should be fewer showers around on wednesday and a little more in the way of sunshine. keep an eye on a low that could bring some rain into the southwest with highs again of a 7—12. looking further ahead, we need to look at what's happening with the jet stream. we have this oxbow effect creating as we move towards the end towards the end of the week. that will trap an area of low pressure centre

towards the british isles, which means it stays unsettled and could stay wet and windy. but with the low pressure and the wind swinging in anticlockwise, potential maybe for the end of the week for it to drag up slightly milder air. so we lose that northerly component to the weather story, and we see the winds change more to a south—westerly. that could drive back the yellow, the amber tones of the warmer air across parts of the country. still a long way ahead, but it does look likely that we could continue with an unsettled theme in most temperatures back to where they should be really for this time of year. and there are indications as we move a little bit further ahead it could get dry and warmer. take care.