Interview with the co-organizer of Miracle in the Heart for the online edition Voice Info

Due to the Mother's Day in Ukraine (May 13), the expert of our project, the mother of 3, the wonderful journalist Atanaiya Ta presented the mothers of Ukraine an interesting article about Ukrainian mothers - "Ukrainian Mothers: a Group Portrait".

The co-organizer of the Miracle in the Heart Project, Svetlana Demianova-Ponomarenko, with great gratitude and inspiration took part in the interview for this paper.

Let's quote (in English) part of the article with this interview:

"Mother is the conductor of the God"

Overcoming obstacles begins with the registration of pregnant women in an antenatal clinic, and childbirth is generally a very strict examination. However, maternity hospitals are gradually changing both in the terms of world trends and under the pressure of Ukrainian activists. Svetlana Demyanova-Ponomarenko from Khartsyzsk (Donetsk region), the inspirer and the organizer of the international project "Miracle in the Heart", notes that this process is bilateral, “Most of our audience are conscious parents. They understand that conception, pregnancy, childbirth and the first two or three hours after birth are the milestones when the entire subsequent life of a person are laid. Childbirth changes us forever, and motherhood changes us forever also. Mother is the conductor of God. How can you humiliate her? Only a very unconscious person who does not fear God can do this. Sprouts of its comprehension appear in post-Soviet mothers. Why have so many organizations that protect the rights of women appeared, why has the doulas movement spread so much? Because the boiling point has come!"

Activists decided to make even a dictionary for Ukrainian women in childbirth - to print phrases that would simplify the communication of a woman with a maternity hospital, and distribute it among all similar institutions. It would seem that it is quite logical that women would like to receive a positive attitude, compliments, encouragement, support, care and respect, calm, faith in a woman's ability to give birth without interference during the childbirth and postpartum period. Nevertheless, for now even these "humanitarian" things that do not cost anything, for most Ukrainians are the incredible luck. Although they, and not the steepness of medical equipment, are decisive in how the delivery will take place.

Svetlana also talks about the new challenges that Internet brought to the mothers’ life. For example, about the cult of the mother, which manages everything: to keep house, as well as to develop children, and do business... "You read such a story about a mother who has got seven children, some of whom she adopted, and everything is in time, and she looks stylish, and engaged in sports, and friendly," says Svetlana. "So who wants to be a bad mother?" The current ideal of the mother exists only in the Instagram, and pursuing it, trying to equalize with your own imaginations about what the mother should be, is a side effect of the easy accessibility of information.

However, the information boom has serious consequences. "Very often people who approach us do not have a strong direction," Svetlana says. “Our mothers had a problem of literature shortage; they were forced to rely only on paediatricians and the experience of their mothers and grandmothers, while our generation, born in the 70's and 80's, has the Internet. In which there are many authorities... We tried to collect them all in our project, but all the time we emphasize: the best specialist in your child is you. Not doctors, not astrologers, not homoeopathists, not osteopaths... There are many assistants in pregnancy, childbirth and the first year of motherhood, and it suggests that, since all these counsellors for breastfeeding, reflexologists, etc. exist, it is absolutely necessarily to involve everyone whose services you can pay, especially if the baby does have health problems."

With a bow to Atanaya and all mothers of the world!