However, almost a million women cannot have children for medical reasons
It seems that Ukraine has enjoyed its first successes in implementing the goals approved by it at the UN Millennium summit. At least, the maternal and infant mortality statistics demonstrate some, but not too much, progress. For instance, while in 2001 24 women of every 100,000 died in childbirth, last year it was only 21. For children under twelve months this index has declined by 0.001%. Obviously, for the World Health Organization these improvements are insignificant, since in European countries infant and maternal mortality is at most half this. However, there really are significant results achieved concerning abortions. At last Wednesday’s briefing at the Health Ministry journalists were told that while in 1993 there were 833,500 officially registered abortions in Ukraine, last year there were only 324,000. Moreover, for the first time during independence, the number of births exceeded the number of abortions. In general, the birth rate appeared higher than that of mortality.
However, the experts see no grounds for optimism in such data. In their view, the reason for this spurt is the fact that in early 1980s Ukraine had baby boom. Thus, in fact, it is simply that the number of those reaching childbearing age has increased.
On the other hand, in Ukraine today sociologists see tendencies characteristic of the West: a decreasing number of mothers under 24 and drastic increase in number of those aged from 28 to 35. Thus, they conclude, the reason for the growing birth rate is probably Ukrainians’ growing wellbeing. Further evidence of the fact that these factors are interconnected is the growth in the number of babies after the government increased the childcare allowance. Moreover, according to the data of the Sociology Institute of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, 53.8% believe that a family should have two children, though only 10.5% can afford it.
Speaking about the real, not desired, birth rates, doctors believe there are a number of basic problems in Ukraine. According to head of the Maternal and Children Health Administration at the Healthcare Ministry Nadiya Zhylka, of the twelve million women of childbearing age almost one million are sterile. Using reproduction technologies, although they are well developed in Ukraine, costs dearly. Only private clinics can cure sterility, since the state cannot afford it, unlike in the Western countries.
However, some steps are being made in this direction, since sterile women are a certain resource able to increase the birth rate in Ukraine. In 2004, says Ms. Zhylka, the Health Ministry is planning to implement a temporary course of treatment free of charge, using high reproduction technologies. Clinics already diagnose the reasons for sterility at state cost.
The Health Ministry’s chief obstetrician and gynecologist Borys Ventskovsky says there are at least two such reasons. First are consequences of the abortions. According to medical statistics, 15% of artificial fetus waste leads to sterility. In reality, the number may be even higher, up to 30%. Speaking about the professional level of doctors doing these operations, the experts are rather vague: “We need to deal with this issue closely.” Speaking about the number of abortions as such, the reason is only the lack of knowledge among Ukrainians. When we, following the World Health Care Organization’s recommendations, started actively advertising family planning and creating information centers, the number of abortions declined.
Another reason is again lack of knowledge, in this case, about the need to go through medical examination on regular basis. If we take the oncology aspect alone, 50 of every 100,000 women are diagnosed with gynecological cancers every year. Moreover, every third woman suffers one pathology or another. As a result, Mr. Ventskovsky states, around 6000 premature children are born every year. Usually there is no chance to rescue them, and even if there is, it would cost the state several thousand dollars.
