forsome, a dip in the sea is as much of a christmas tradition as turkey and crackers. this was the scene at boscombe pier near bournemouth. a little further north on the yorkshire coast swimmers have been hopping into the north sea, braving the waves in all manner of costumes and fancy dress. ahead of their swim, alison freeman went to meet some of them to find out why they were doing it. they're used to being in the cold and getting wet, but the lads from redcar rugby club's under—14s are still a little nervous aboutjumping in the north sea as part of the annual boxing day dip. freezing! it's going to be horrible. it will be very cold. i know that. but they're doing it for a good cause, thejunction, a charity in the town which helps support the mental health of young people like them and their friends. i have just lost a whole lot of confidence, like not being able to talk to people, just normal general stuff. so you are talking about because of the pandemic, basically? notjust the pandemic, i'm also worried about stuff i needed it in primary because it was bad in there. so they took me into a room and they talked to me and asked how i was and then they tried to help me through it. how did that make you feel? it made me feel better, a lot better. the community fund—raisers are a vital part of our funding stream and the money they raise is able to buy resources and materials that we just wouldn't have been able to provide otherwise. adam illingworth is the reason his mum kate will be taking part in the dip for a fourth time. ages five he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and spent a lot of time in hospital, where his family relied upon the support of young lives vs cancer. to see him going through all that was horrendous. but the help and support you do get from the likes of young lives vs cancer is just amazing. and they were always there for us. any time of the day, night, any time, they helped us so much. despite beating cancer, adam died at the age of 20 from a seizure. so his family set up a fund in his name to support the charity that helped him. the rugby boys will be braving the cold as a team. something that their coach, who is also kaiden�*s mum, thinks is important. the team are getting ppi and sort of backing them up, that is really good and really special. is it worth it because you you will be raising money? yes. if you just do it for a laugh there's not really a point, is there, it'sjust getting cold. alison freeman, bbc news, redcar. now on bbc news, our world. 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. 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, 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. yes. 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 and even take you to an interview at the police station, then 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. —— yeah, we can turn the water on, like, for the shower and undo 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. so... 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. chuckles. ok, but i ask if you recognise the bad sign? i would recognise the bad signs, yes. 0k. 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. shh! laughter. 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. a few of us got to see a white christmas but, for many more, it was too mild for snow. we had a lot of mist and murk and we had some outbreaks of rain. this stripe of cloud on the satellite picture brought rain and some hill snow in the north during boxing day. there's more cloud and rain waiting in the wings down to the south—west. but the big story, i think, for this week will be this surge of very, very mild air wafting up from the south, affecting all parts of the uk as we move towards the end of 2021. it will be turning increasingly mild this week, but with some wind and rain at times. now, many of us will start off monday with some cloud, some mist and fog, some quite murky conditions again. rain into the south—west of england which will push northwards towards parts of wales, the midlands and east anglia through the day, tending to weaken as it goes. elsewhere, some of the mist and fog and cloud will tend to lift and break and we will see some spells of sunshine in the far north of england, northern ireland and scotland, albeit with some showers in the far north. temperatures ranging from 6 degrees in aberdeen to 12 in plymouth through the afternoon. and then through monday night, a bit more rain potentially down towards the south. another lump of wet weather starting to push into northern ireland, parts of northern england, southern scotland. the winds will start to pick up down towards the south and the west as well. very mild in the south. a little bit chilly up towards the north. and then, as we go through tuesday, this area of wet weather will spread out of northern ireland into southern scotland, northern england, parts of wales, perhaps into the midlands as well. we will see some sunny spells to the far north and to the far south but it will be really quite windy across parts of england and wales. some of these western coasts could see gusts of a0 to maybe 50 mph. quite mild in the south — 12 degrees. further north, a little bit cooler but those temperatures still quite respectable for the time of year. however, there is even milder weather on the way. as we move out of tuesday into wednesday, we see this next frontal system pushing in from the south—west, a band of rain that'll drive its way north—eastwards, some snow for a time over high ground in scotland, but this will mostly be rain because that mild air will be working its way in. temperatures down towards the south on wednesday afternoon up to 16, maybe 17 degrees. still a little bit chilly for some northern areas but as we move towards the end of the week and the end of the year, that mild weather spreads to all parts. there will still be some rain at times. welcome to bbc news — i'm david eades. our top stories: we will be free! the tributes flow for archbishop desmond tutu after his death at the age of 90. he was a man of unwavering courage, of principled conviction and whose life was spent in the service of others. the israeli government approves a plan to double the number of settlers in the golan heights — regarded by much of the world as occupied territory. a covid vaccine mandate for all private companies comes into force in new york city — the first of its kind in the united states.

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