Sofia, February 23, 2022
The “Every Baby is priceless” campaign advocates for babies' right to prenatal care and ensuring equal access to pregnancy follow-up examinations for all women
On February 23, 2022, doctors, health mediators and representatives of civil society organizations joined an online discussion on the problem of lack of access to medical follow-up of pregnancy, affecting about 7,000 women and their babies each year - every tenth woman has given birth without having undergone any medical check or examination.
The We Care project aims to improve the well-being of children through a holistic approach, including advocacy in health, nutrition, early learning and responsive parenting, safe and a safe family environment and access to medicine.
The work on the Every Baby is prceless campaign was presented by Dilyana Dilkova from the National Network of Health Mediators. Along with the data from the report "The Price of Indifference", she spoke about the civic initiative to raise public support for changes in Ordinance 26 of the Ministry of Health. The petition „Every baby is priceless“, accompanied by opinions of professional medical organizations, medical professionals and NGOs will be submitted to the Ministry of Health in March 2022. The subscription advocates equal access to prevention during pregnancy for all women. A short animated video synthesizes the highlights of the campaign.
Ivanka Abadjieva from the National Network of Health Mediators presented the work of women's self-help groups formed within the campaign in the municipalities of Shumen (Ivanski), Botevgrad (Skravena and Vrachesh) and Harmanli. Leaders of the groups are health mediators who will talk to women on topics related to pregnancy and women's health.
Participants in the discussion agreed that ensuring adequate follow-up for all pregnant women is a matter of paramount importance. This is primarily related to the attitude towards new life and young babies, who are the main victims of this situation. Babies are appearing in the world, burdened with the task of paying the price for the gaps in our health system with their health and social accomplishment. On the other hand, the data show that families, society and the state pay a high personal, social and economic price due to the inability to prevent injuries, diseases and deaths of newborns due to lack of prevention. Among those affected are obstetricians and gynecologists who meet in the delivery room women of unknown health status and medical history.
According to NHIF data for the last 3 years less than 40% of uninsured pregnant women manage to receive the only state-provided examination under Ordinance 26. The participants in the discussion also commented on the obstacles to access to this very insufficient examination – women are not informed that they have the right to be examined, refusal of obstetricians and gynecologists to perform examinations under Ordinance 26 due to administrative difficulties, the notion that a single examination does not equal a monitored pregnancy, difficulties in accessing health services for women living in poverty and in remote regions.
For 2021, the National Framework Agreement allocates about BGN 65 million for hospital care for babies. At the same time, the investment in tracking all pregnant women in Bulgaria will cost a little over BGN 1 million. If this leads to a reduction in the share of complications by only 5%, twice as much resources will be saved (over BGN 2 million).
