In Ukraine, women give birth in birth houses–a building separate from a hospital. These are run by the government and are regionally located so usually a woman gives birth in the birth house in her region. Prenatal care is done in a separate building, the regional polyclinic, and the staff that sees her for prenatal care is separate from the staff that works in the birth house.
These are photos of a big birth house in Kiev, the capitol city:
There is one large room with lots of beds where women labor.
When the woman is ready to push the baby out, she’s brought into this delivery room. This hospital had two rooms:
This particular birth house had one “family” room where the husband and wife could birth together and note the bassinet for the baby included in the room. The labor/delivery table was in this room, too, the now-somewhat-old-fashioned kind with stirrups. This lady is the head of the nursing staff at this birth house. It was she and the anesthtologist who gave us the tour and had tea with us.
I believe this is the c-section room.
These are two shots of the NICU in this birth house:
I do not think i would like to give birth there, but at least they let the husband and wife be together!! I have heard all sorts of stories from my sister in laws from Russia of giving birth