About our flash mob “Tell about your ‘Perfect’ Birth Experience in a Maternity Hospital to the Minister and Offer an Alternative!"

"A benefit for the society is damage for an individual."
- Porfiry Ivanov

We decided to name our flashmob “Tell about your ‘Perfect’ Birth Experience in a Maternity Hospital to the Minister and Offer an Alternative!»

February 24-25, 2015 (and at any time later at your wish), Ukraine.

Further on this page you will find the STEP-BY-STEP
instruction of How, What and Whom to write to!

Web-conference about the alternatives to maternity hospitals in Ukraine

For those who are not very aware of the topic: please, check out the following information on our website:

• Video conference with the discussion on possible alternatives to maternity hospitals; Feb. 22, 2015 (video at the top)
• Open letter to the Minister of Health of Ukraine (to read) requesting to pay attention to the sensitive area of imperfection in Ukrainian obstetric system which is a danger to female fertility and our children’s health!
• Article “What is a Birth Centre in Great Britain? (to read).

Dates of the flash mob are February 24-25, 2015 (very fortunate days for such actions according to the lunar calendar).

Any woman who gave birth in Ukraine during last 10 years can take part in the action.

It’s for those who:

• take care of their family’s health, who think about future generations and themselves,
• are ready to demand their rights to choose where and with whom to give birth,
• are not satisfied with maternity hospitals in Ukraine, the service and comfort they provide,
• want to avoid medical aggression in labour,
• have experienced a moral coercion in a maternity hospital/perinatal centre,
• want to tell their own story of the birth and to prove that it is not so fine and perfect in the maternity hospitals,
• dealt with the pressure from the doctors’ side in respect of so-called gratitude, i.e. their birth was not free ( since childbirth care in Ukrainian maternity hospitals are free of charge officially),
• are sure that any woman can deliver without the medical intervention and has the right to do that as an option,

If it’s about you, you are welcome to join our project as a whole (here) and our flashmob especially!

Support the project & share this news with your friends!

This event is aimed to voice our criticism of the existing monopolistic obstetric aid system and to inform the Ministry of Health of Ukraine about our social demand of the alternative to maternity hospitals. In the short term, we want to have an opportunity to organize centres of natural childbirth (Dr.Alexander Kobasa’s “Family Centres of Natural Birth”), and to gain the legalization of home midwifery in an outlying but visible time.

So let’s spend 30 minutes for the sake of our and our children’s health!

Here is our Flashmob’s Step-By-Step Instruction:

(This instruction is approximate and the design is made to simplify the process, it is not obligatory and created for your convenience; you can write as you like): 

In a text editor (Word is preferable) type a letter addressed to the Minister of Health of Ukraine, Mr Alexander Kvitashvili, and to the Head of the Strategic Advisory Group of Reforming of the Health Care System of Ukraine, Mr V.Kurpita, consisting of the following blocks:

1. Copy the text of your letter to the exchange buffer, open your mail service and paste the copied text into the text field.
2. Send your mail via these addresses:

• About you (indicate your name and surname, you are: mother, woman, Ukrainian, your city, social status, form of activity, number of children),
• Define your position on the existing obstetric system and give reasons for your statement,
• Tell your birth story, what dissatisfied you (for those who gave birth at maternity hospitals),
• Indicate the payment your family made for your “chargeless” birth in the maternity hospital and define your position on this fact,
• Offer the Minister an alternative to maternity hospitals, the one you consider necessary,
• Provide examples of existing alternatives in other countries,
• Tell about the danger of not bringing this alternative in Ukraine in the nearest future,
• Thank and express your hope on… collaboration, mutual understanding, etc.
• Sign the letter and put your complete postal address with an index.

Minister of Health of Ukraine, Mr Kvitashvili moz@moz.gov.ua.
Head of Strategic Advisory Group of reforming the Health Care System of Ukraine, Mr Kurpita vladkurpita@ukr.net

3. Using Word, add to your letter the date of sending the mail to the Ministry of Health, your data (name, surname, city, email, phone number (optional)), save this file and send it to us at proestrofest.info@gmail.com as the attachment to the letter, giving a topic “I’ve sent the letter to the Minister!”.

4. If you have an opportunity, please print your letter and send it as a certified letter to the Ministry of Healthcare of Ukraine on the address:  Grushevskogo str., 7, Kiev, 01601

5. Spread in your social network the information about our flash mob, invite your friends and co-thinkers to join our initiative! Dates are not important. 

6. If your data are not in our “co-thinkers base” (a form right below), please do it now and stay up-to-date to our events!

Here are fragments of the letters, which found the response in our hearts:

Ksenia, Kiev:

…I first thought to give birth at a maternity hospital, but having examined the current situation in these institutions, I abandoned the idea. I realized that I need totally and absolutely don’t all that they would offer me during delivery, all of this will greatly disturb and even harm the natural delivery flow.
In labour, I need a sense of security, warmth, peace, silence, darkness and the opportunity to focus on my sensations, my child and the process as a whole. In a maternity hospital all this is impossible; there is a bright light, regular observations, high probability of medical interventions which I do not agree and do not feel safe with; the environment that is not conducive to calm; and controlling the birth process, which is entirely mine and my baby’s, on the part of physicians. In my case, this is unacceptable. The only reason I may need a hospital in labour is the real need of treatment. Until everything is going its natural way, I do not need any medical assistance during childbirth. It’s true for me and many women who think the same way...

Elena, Kiev region:

... I believe that modern obstetrics system in Ukraine, as well as the legal framework regarding home birth, is imperfect.
I believe it wrong to see in a pregnant woman a patient (as it is written in all prenatal records and documents), and to send her to a hospital for her labour could be managed. Childbirth is a physiological process, and in most cases, there is no need to resort to medication and special technical means. Childbirth is an instinctive process where it is very important to listen to yourself but not to execute medical commands. Childbirth is extremely irrational process when the woman stays under the influence of natural “drugs” (hormones) and in altered states of consciousness. The most important thing in childbirth is to relax and to let the birth happen.
In the process of the birth woman is an extremely vulnerable creature requiring psychological support. However, this vulnerability is used against women. Rather than having support and permission to the body to do its job, a woman is forced to behave in a way convenient to doctors. Maternity hospitals’ doctors believe women unqualified in the matter of labour and most decisions are made by themselves, without considering it necessary to inform women.
Maternity hospitals area is aggressive to altered states of consciousness of lying-in women, which itself leads to complications in birth ...

Maria, Makeevka (Donetsk region):

… I fully support the public initiative to create an alternative system of obstetrics in Ukraine. I am deeply convinced that in our democratic and informationally open society every woman has the right to choose the atmosphere and the specialist to give birth with  ...
... I believe that in order to improve the system of maternity the institution of private midwives should be legalized. Every woman in early pregnancy could be consulted about the state of her and her child’s health with a specialist, which she has the right and the ability to choose herself. It does not replace the antenatal clinic's system and just qualitatively complements it. The chosen midwife not only carries on the pregnancy but also assists at birth. She is previously aware of all wishes of the lay-in mother, her readiness, her physical condition, and can accordingly provide support and a sense of security to the labouring woman. If you give birth naturally, this midwife also can deliver a baby, as in this case, one can do without the participation of a physician ...

Yuliya, Vinnytsia

I strongly dislike the way they treat the birth process and the women in labour in Ukrainian maternity centres. I underwent it myself when it was “prohibited” to refuse the tests and assessments in the maternity welfare clinic… In the maternity hospital, you are tortured by numerous questions, tests and examinations and you are not given the right information nor told about the alternatives instead of staying safe in the labour process. Moreover, trying to stand upon your rights you bump into the indignity and rudeness…

… On the strength of the described situation, I would prefer to give birth at home have an opportunity to consult a doctor in case of need and to receive a knowledgeable assistance without blame and side glances, without an unwanted hospitalization and treatment, without the paperwork generated by the ignorance and fear of the medical staff …

Olga, Kharkov

… Nowadays in our state, it’s much spoken about the European integration, democracy and freedom. I kindly ask the minister to promote the protection of my basic right to freedom in choosing the place and the surrounding of my birth…

… A monopoly in state maternity hospitals generates a corruption and a poor quality of service in the maternity hospitals… I want the freedom of choice for Ukrainian women between the maternity hospitals, birth centres and home birth to be legislated …

We want as much as possible Ukrainian mothers to join us and to come out for a freedom of their choice of how to give birth. That’s why we ask you to repost this page and to inform about the initiative virtually and face-to-face, to invite your friends, colleagues and like-minded people.

Thank you all for your collaboration, your work, your activity, for supporting Ukrainian Mothers aiming to give birth naturally and to raise their children healthy!

You’re welcome to write us: proestrofest.info@gmail.com

Call us: +38 О95 71О 17 7О

Your Skype: olyvishgo