A 26-year-old pregnant woman experiencing intense labor pain committed suicide after begging for a cesarean section but it was denied her.
The woman was seen on CCTV doubling over in pain as she begged her family to approve of the C-section in delivering her baby, who was too large for a natural birth. After hours of being in pain, she killed herself and her unborn child by throwing herself from the fifth floor window of the hospital she was being treated in.
Under Chinese law, the family of a pregnant woman has to give permission before a C-section can take place. The unnamed woman can be seen in the video hobbling around the maternity ward in the final hours before her death. She is seen walking around, aided by an unknown man, and falling to the floor doubling over in pain.
At one point, she leans against a wall as though she was about to collapse. She is also seen kneeling on the floor in distress as others, who appear to be her family, crowd around her.
According to reports, her baby’s head was too big, thereby making it impossible to birth naturally. Doctors at the No 1 Hospital in the city of Yulin in Shaanxi Province, northern China, examined her and determined that she needed a cesarean as she was not able to give birth naturally. But her family insisted on a natural birth and refused her the right to undergo the procedure.
After repeatedly trying to leave the medical centre, the woman fell to her death from the window. Her unborn foetus also died in the incident.
The woman’s medical notes read: “The pregnant woman twice walked out of the ward to tell her family that she wanted a caesarean because she could no longer bear the pain, but the family continued to insist on a natural delivery.”
Police told local media that the woman’s death was being treated as a suicide. Her death has sparked protests online with other women calling for greater reproductive rights.
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