Opinions & Interviews
Lukashenko instructs to set up IVF database in Belarus
MINSK, 31 December (BelTA) – Belarus should advance the development of reproductive technologies, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he visited the National Research Center Mother and Child on 31 December, BelTA has learned.
“We recently discussed this problem. They say that the system is incomplete, that we don't have a database, that these things are underdeveloped in our country. Let us focus on this. Let’s do this as in Russia at least. I was told literally two or three days ago that we are significantly lagging behind on this front," Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “So let's focus on this and get things done very quickly, in the first half of next year. We will adopt all decisions so that we are on par with the most developed countries in this regard. Since we have IVF programs (it does not matter whether 800 people have applied for IVF or two people), let's go further. Let’s do everything so that all women can become mothers."
Assisted reproductive technologies help give birth to about 1,000 children in Belarus every year. The head of state was briefed that in 2021 more than 800 couples underwent in vitro fertilization in state medical institutions, of which more than 500 were done in Mother and Child.
During his visit to the National Research Center Mother and Child Aleksandr Lukashenko was shown around a new building of the Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care and Newborn Intensive Care Unit. Healthcare Minister Dmitry Pinevich and Director of the Mother and Child center Sergei Vasilyev reported to the president on the organization of perinatal care in the country and the operation of the center. Then Aleksandr Lukashenko visited the unit where babies weighing from 500 grams are taken care of.
A multi-tier system of maternal and child healthcare has been in operation in Belarus for more than 20 years. It incroproates one perinatal center of the 4th technological tier "Mother and Child", 17 perinatal centers of the 3rd level (regional and city of Minsk), 27 perinatal centers of the 2nd level (inter-district and the city of Minsk), and 64 healthcare organizations of the 1st tier.
Belarus is in the group of countries with the lowest infant mortality rates: 2.6 per 1,000 live births in 2020. This is the best indicator among all CIS countries and many developed countries, including the UK, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, and the United States.
The survival rate of low-birth-weight infants in the first year of life is more than 80% in Belarus. Belarus ranks 35th in the ranking of the overall child happiness (Russia is 37th) and eighth in the ranking of the lowest neonatal mortality rate. Maternal mortality from obstetric causes in Belarus is one of the lowest in the world.
The National Research Center Mother and Child was set up in November 2004 after the merger of several institutions. A new building of the Anesthesiology, Intensive Care and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was put into operation here in November 2021.
It is a 4th-tier neonatal intensive care unit which consists of anesthesiology and resuscitation department (with wards for newborns), and a mobile resuscitation and consultative team for newborns. It also has a training center for current pediatric anesthesiologists and resuscitators and nurses, as well as an emergency analysis laboratory and an operating room for emergency surgical interventions.
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