Having a baby in Ukraine!

You are a young couple and you decide to start your family.  You find out you are pregnant and need to decide where you will seek medical care.  If you are one of the new Ukrainians you can choose to have your baby at a new private hospital.  The cost is only $10,000 and you have to sign a paper saying you understand a healthy baby cannot be guaranteed.  Understandably this is too expensive for most Ukrainians.

 The next alternative is to give birth at a government hospital.  In Ukraine you always have two obstetricians.  One is typically a consultant and the other actually delivers the baby.  When the time of delivery arrives, you call your first choice and pray they are not busy.  Of course, that is why you have a back up.

Mothers and babies usually remain in the hospital for 3 or 4 days for a vaginal delivery and 7 days for a C-section.  For follow-up the pediatrician from the polyclinic comes to your flat after you come home.

I can guarantee this information is up-to-date since our neighbor just above us is the young couple having a baby.  She was very excited to learn that I was a pediatrician.  She said I will be her new best friend.  I told her our twins born 24 years ago by C-section cost about $4,000 and that when I was born the cost was $150.  She was quick to add her father born during the Soviet days cost nothing!