Our Work

Little Bohdan with his father ready to go home (Photo: Courtesy of Zhurnal Zhytomyra
http://zhitomir.pp.net.ua/blog/2007-06-07-64)

Alyona was brought to the Zhytomyr Maternity Hospital after her water had broken. A little later, a baby boy was born - alive but weighting just 490 grams (a bit over one pound), and few expected him to survive.

“When I saw my son for the first time, he was so tiny he could fit on my palm. He was so weak that I was ready for the worst. But doctors kept fighting for the baby’s life. I was praying to God to keep my son alive. Thanks to God and the doctors, Bohdan’s state is stable now and we can finally take him home,” said Alyona while journalists visited her as she was being discharged from the intensive care unit in July 2007.

This is the first case of a baby born weighting less than 500 grams surviving. In fact, before January 2007 – when Ukraine adopted a law that all babies born less than 500 grams are nonetheless considered to be living – low-weight babies who lived less than seven days were regarded as miscarriages or abortions, and not as deaths.

Roman Savka during training in Georgia (Photo: Irina Matvienko)

Roman Savka, an obstetrician, along with three other Ukrainian health care providers - Lubov Polyakova, a midwife, Natalia Podolchak and Dmytro Dobryansky, neonatologists - have mastered excellent training skills in effective evidence-based perinatal technologies and have been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as international trainers. Now, at the request of the European WHO Headquarters they conduct trainings in Russia, Georgia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

They have the USAID-funded Maternal and Infant Health Project (MIHP) to thank for their achievements. In Ukraine since 2003, MIHP has considerably improved perinatal practices in Ukraine mostly through ongoing training and various technical and informational support but also through, the provision of life-saving equipment and behavior change campaigns to Ukraine maternities, communities and the Ministry of Health.

Initially, the project had to bring international experts to train local health care providers on effective evidence-based perinatal technologies. Now, Ukrainian trainers are invited to conduct trainings in the neighboring countries.

Roman, a obstetrician from the Lutsk Maternity Hospital, recalls the first training he has attended. “I remember my skepticism and non-acceptance of the new birthing practices. It was unheard off for me and my colleagues that a women can give a birth without a Rakhmanov bed and with relatives present. It took me a while to change my mind and two years to master new skills so I could pass my knowledge to others,” said Roman Savka.