Russian Cultural Profile
Women's Health

Anna Badken, a young Russian journalist, has experienced women’s health care in both Russia and the United States. When the 21-year-old Badkhen went to Konsultatsiya No. 26 in St. Petersburg to terminate an unwanted pregnancy a few years ago, she expected a facility similar to the Planned Parenthood clinic in Utica, New York, where she had translated for a Russian woman obtaining an abortion in 1994. The woman was taken to a private room where a counselor explained the potential health risks, then to an operating room where a doctor, two nurses and two volunteers prepared her for the procedure. Badkhen held her hand, and when it was all over they had cookies and tea in a recovery room.

At Konsultatsiya No. 26, Badkhen was told to have a blood test for AIDS and syphilis, and that she should schedule a date as soon as possible because it would soon be too late to abort. She came back a few days later for the procedure, and was seated in a hallway adjacent to the operating room with seven other women who were also there to terminate pregnancies. When Badkhen returned from a quick trip to the facilities, all seven women had disappeared. She waited in the hallway for 90 minutes before the women began to "emerge" from the operating room one by one.

Confused, Badkhen knocked on the operating room door. A doctor came out, and asked why she had not entered the room when everyone else had. She said that she had assumed that they would assist one woman at a time, to which the doctor responded: "We have eight beds in here... We operate on you all simultaneously."

Badkhen had missed the last session of the day, and the doctor told her to return the next day. However, when she told the doctor that she had to have the procedure as soon as possible, she was taken to an examination room. After donning washed single-use gloves for a brief examination, the doctor deemed that the time period during which it was safe for Badkhen to abort had already passed three weeks ago. Soon, Badkhen was submerged into the even more humiliating world of prenatal care in Russia.

Her gynecologist at the free city-run clinic shared the examination room with another doctor, where - after leaving their pants, socks and underwear on a short sofa - two patients would be examined at once. Even in her office there was little privacy, as the gynecologist would often see two women at a time - expecting them to discuss intimate details in front of perfect strangers. Eventually, these women give birth in a room with four to six other women - typically sharing one doctor and a few nurses that serve a whole floor of such rooms (Source: Badkhen, Anna. "Young, Russian and Pregnant." The Moscow Times 25 July 1998).

Perhaps the memory of women’s health care in Russia, in addition to a more generalized aversion to doctors, is what prevented Vera from seeking prenatal care during the first four months of her pregnancy. Working at a health care facility, she was continually pestered to seek prenatal care and finally gave in - but it was with reluctance. Luckily her experience will most likely be more similar to the woman for whom Badkhen translated at the Utica Planned Parenthood than to the experience of Badkhen herself.

Indeed, more than $9.1 million was spent on a newly renovated and expanded obstetric and pediatric center in St. Luke's Memorial Hospital, located about five minutes away from St. Elizabeth's. The Birthplace includes a state-of- the-art labor and delivery area with seven comfortable labor, delivery and recovery suites; a remodeled and expanded nursery and Level 11 Special Care Nursery; and an expanded pediatric unit. In addition, the facility specializes in neonatal intensive care, with experienced neonatologists and nurses caring for sick and premature infants in the only Level 11 Special Care Nursery in the region (source: Medical Education at Bassett-Family Medicine web page).

Lyobov Boyko was pregnant with her eleventh child when she came to the United States. After having ten children in the former Soviet Union, she was pleasantly surprised by the quality of health care she received at St. Luke’s. "The health care here is different in a better way. The service is much better and the people are very nice," Lyobov said.

In Russia, delivery rooms often have eight to ten expectant mothers in one room – and just a few nurses and doctors attending to the multitude of birthing women. Lyobov was glad that she was the only woman in the delivery room, and that there were only two women in her room after she gave birth. She was also happy that her husband could be present at the birth and visit her afterward. In Russia no visitors are allowed in the hospital when a woman is giving birth, for fear that visitors will bring germs that could infect the newborn infants. Women and their babies are also forced to stay in the hospital for at least one week – two if a Caesarian section was performed or other complications arose. Lyobov was glad to go home with her new baby after just a few days in the hospital, even though she had had a Caesarian section.

Lyobov was also pleased with the quality of prenatal care that she received in Utica. In Russia, she had never seen an ultrasound machine. She was excited to see her growing baby on the ultrasound monitor, and to bring home pictures.