A WWC and its Director Changing Minsk Community Attitude about Birthing Process

By Evangeline Coleman-Crawford

Victoria Lozyuk and her staff at the Minsk Women's Wellness Center (WWC) are working to change some families' distrusting attitudes toward birthing centers in Belarus. Innovative programs such as "Partners In Birth," a childbirth training course taught four evenings a week, have been implemented to educate expectant parents and help ease their fears about the delivery process. The course also teaches women birthing techniques, such as breathing methods, Kegel exercises, and pelvic muscle control to help to decrease pain and speed up the process of giving birth. The program is unique because it encourages fathers-who are often not involved in this process-to be present in the delivery rooms during childbirth.

Victoria Lozyuk, MD (right) is interviewed during the opening ceremony of the Minsk WWC in April, 1998.

With the goal of improving the health of women by providing a comprehensive scope of clinical and educational healthcare services including family planning, breast care, adolescent healthcare, perinatal education, and health promotion programs, the Minsk WWC, located in Birth House No. 2, was established through the AIHA Minsk/Pittsburgh partnership. Sponsored by AIHA, this partnership paired Maternity Hospital No. 2 in Minsk, Belarus with Magee Women's Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since its inception, Victoria Lozyuk has served as the Center's director and has made community outreach a top priority.

Under Lozyuk's direction, the center currently offers the innovative services of trained midwives; a perinatal education program that includes infant massage classes; and a sex education class for youth between the ages of 12 and 17. In addition to community education, the Center offers training programs in family planning, as well as programs designed for medical professionals in prevention of breast cancers and sexually transmitted diseases. All of the classes conducted at the Center are free of charge.

Last June, the WWC opened its family birthing room where trained midwives deliver babies. "Families see midwives as more understanding and caring-this has increased the popularity of birth houses and most couples now prefer to use their services, especially after participating in childbirth classes at the WWC," says Michelle Ondeck, assistant director of the Center of Excellence at Magee Women's Hospital. Because of the popularity of the program and increased education and professionalism of the midwives, Birth House No. 2 now conducts 20 percent of all infant deliveries in Minsk.

The increasing popularity of birth houses has resulted in a change of attitude regarding the birthing process, not just among expecting parents, but among Russian health professionals and even Lozyuk herself. In the past, few men were ever present in delivery rooms during the birth of their children. Today, however, more men are likely to show their support by being present during the birth. Lozyuk recently asked her own father whether he would have liked to have been present at the birth of his child and he answered, "No doubt."

Lozyuk oversees the planning and implementation of new programs as well as the daily operations of the Center. Earlier this year, she conducted a Teen Conference while playing an active role in establishing an education center at the Mozyr WWC. In her attempts to implement change in Belarus, Lozyuk frequently shares her Center's successes with healthcare professional throughout the country. "Lozyuk is a true leader and manager, who takes her job very seriously. Her style of management sets an excellent example for other Center directors to follow," says Ondeck.

As a part of her vision for the future, Lozyuk would like to see the Minsk WWC registered with the Belarusian Ministry of Justice as a non-governmental organization. According to her, this would facilitate raising funds to disseminate ideas and programs such as "Partners in Birth" and to train other healthcare professionals to teach health literacy programs in their communities.

Expressing her gratitude and pride in the Center's educational programs that have helped to reduce women's fears about childbirth, Lozyuk described how one woman's idea of a visit to a birth house was compared to going to a "slaughter house." But Lozyuk is determined to change these age-old misconceptions.