Pregnant woman has unborn baby girl forcibly removed by caesarean after social workers obtain court order because she had suffered a mental breakdown

• Italian woman claims she was not warned she would be given a ceasarean
• Essex council obtained order allowing them to sedate her against her will
• The case has now escalated into an international legal row
  

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

PUBLISHED: 00:39 GMT, 1 December 2013 | UPDATED: 02:45 GMT, 1 December 2013

Social services forcibly removed a pregnant woman's unborn baby by caesarean section and put it up for adoption after obtaining a high court order on the grounds the mother had suffered a mental breakdown.

Essex council obtained an order allowing them to sedate the woman against her will before taking her daughter and placing it into care.

The Italian woman, who was in Britain on a work training course, claims she had not even been warned that she would be given a caesarean. It is not believed a natural birth would have posed a risk to her or the child's health.

Social workers argue they were acting in the best interests of the baby, who is now 15 months old, and are refusing to hand her back to the mother despite claims that she has made a complete recovery, The Sunday Telegraphreports.

Brendan Fleming, the woman’s British lawyer, told the newspaper: 'I have never heard of anything like this in all my 40 years in the job.

'I can understand if someone is very ill that they may not be able to consent to a medical procedure, but a forced caesarean is unprecedented.

FULL STORY: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2516270/Pregnant-woman-unbo...