in close contact with someone with coronavirus, with daily rapid tests offered as an alternative to quarantine. the foreign office plays down any suggestion that british—iranian aid worker nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe is to be freed after iran's state tv claimed the uk had paid to secure it. manchester united's premier league match with liverpool has been postponed after fans invaded the pitch at old trafford in protest against the club's american owners. a national day of mourning in israel after 45 men and boys were killed by a crush at a jewish festival early on friday in the north of the country. now on bbc news, in bosnia herzegovina, the health care system only allows giving birth in hospitals. our world follows a woman on a mission to deliver her baby at home in secret.

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's 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 for productive rights. she's preparing for the arrival of her fourth 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 clinical decisions without the approval of a doctor.

in countries where home births are allowed, only around i% or 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 a third.

but for amira, having her baby at home is her best chance of avoiding another traumatic birth. the family's getting the living room 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've 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. daniela 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. on 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, i 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 i acceptable. the health minister of croatia changed in 2020, and although there haven't been any law changes criminalising 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 herfindings 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's 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, yes. 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 herfamily. 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 elmir�*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, idon'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 in this process? 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 moment 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. so, 0k there? 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 statements. we also approached the ministry of health of bosnia and herzegovina, but they didn't reply.

hello, there. april was a record—breaking one. the first week of may looks like it's staying on the cool side. there's more rain in the forecast as well and in the short—term most of it is going to come from that area of cloud there. that's a deepening area of low pressure so the winds are going to be strengthening around that low pressure as it heads into the uk and we're going to find some rain coming in from the atlantic as well. chilly start first thing on monday for eastern scotland and north—east england and it may take a while for the rain to reach east anglia and the south—east. the far north of scotland may have a largely dry day but rain is setting in and once it arrives it will turn out to be quite heavy. turning more showery out towards the west, especially close to the centre of our area of low pressure. the strongest of the winds will be picking up to the south of that across more southern parts of england and wales. gusts of 50, 60 mph around

the coasts later on in the day. but because it's turning wet, it's turning windy with cloud and it's going to be cold for this time of year. it stays windy, actually, well into the night. the more persistent rain will get swept away as the low runs away towards the east but it still windy into tuesday, especially around some of those north sea coasts. maybe a bit of sunshine on tuesday but we have got showers or longer spells of rain developing. winteriness over the hills of scotland, temperatures at 7 degrees in northern scotland. the far south of england and wales may make 12 or 13 where it's a bit drier and gradually the winds will ease down a bit through the day. the winds continue to fall lighter overnight as that low continues to move away but if we look at where the winds are coming from, they're coming all the way from the north and that's cold air, of course, and that cold air will be in place through the rest of the week. it's cold enough for the risk of frost to return as those winds are light on wednesday morning. some sunshine around and a few more showers, wintry on the hills across scotland and a few showers coming

into the eastern side of england but head further west and it's fewer showers, more sunshine and temperatures no better than 11 or 12 degrees. as we head into thursday, we have got this little feature here running in from the near atlantic. it looks like most of the rain will be heading into the english channel and there will be more cloud across southern parts of england and wales and we may see some rain getting as far north as the m4. at the same time, we've got another feature bringing the showers down into scotland and northern ireland. again, they mayjust be a touch wintry over the mountains of scotland and temperatures really struggling up to 10 or 11 degrees. as we move into friday, things start to quieten down for a while. 0ne weather system moves away, the showers square away from the north and we await the arrival of this low pressure for the weekend. but friday, first of all... again, a chilly start, it should be largely dry and there aren't as many showers on friday and there will be some lengthy spells of sunshine and some light winds as well. temperatures may be picking up a little bit to 13 or even 14 degrees. let's head further on and heading

into the weekend, we are looking at this area of low pressure to push rain northwards and eastwards into the uk. there is the position of the jet stream, the upper level winds, quite an undulation to the jet stream, which anchors that area of low pressure to the west of the uk. but if we look at the surface winds, they're actually coming in from the south and that could bring us a bit of warmth for the eastern side of the uk. temperatures of 17 or 18 degrees. beyond that, though, into the following week, there is a lot more uncertainty. some computer models take the pressure away and introduce a cold northerly wind. we're not expecting that to happen but there's still the threat of rain into the following week, especially in the east.

tonight at 10:00: two police officers are injured, one seriously, after a major security breach at old trafford, with hundreds of fans invading the pitch. they're angry with man united's american owners, the glazer family, saying they've piled up debt and betrayed supporters over the defunct european super league. the club's just being bled dry by the glazers, it's a cash cow. but for us it's manchester united football club, and we love it. they've not communicated with the fans for 16 years, and that leads to this kind of anger. the match today against liverpool, one of the biggest of the season, had to be postponed. also tonight... the government says it's the last

lap of the race to beat coronavirus in england, but ministers urge caution,