© 2018 Ozhiganova Anna
2018 – № 2 (16)
Keywords: obstetric aid, medicalization and demedicalization, perinatal technologies, doula, individual midwife, continuous perinatal support, humanizing midwifery practices, traditional midwifery, soft birth
Abstract: Currently, the situation in the Russian obstetric aid is perceived as quite problematic. Women fear not only the neglect of their needs by maternity hospital workers, but also excessive and unjustified medicalization of childbirth. Among the various perinatal specialists (obstetrician-gynecologists, midwives and doulas) there are also certain contradictions, the causes of which are rooted primarily in the insufficiently clearly defined boundaries of responsibility and practice. In addition, different specialists often implement in their activities fundamentally incompatible obstetric approaches or even ideological paradigms, followers of which they become in the course of their professional training and further professional career. Nevertheless, there are examples of highly successful interactions of perinatal specialists, who have joined forces in their efforts to bring new, more humane approaches and practices to the Russian maternity hospitals. Now this positive experience of cooperation exists only in some individual private projects and in the few maternity hospitals, but the study of these experience could open up not only broad scientific perspectives, but become a factor that will change the situation in Russian obstetric care for the better. The article is aimed at finding solutions to the actual problems that currently exist in the Russian obstetric aid by analyzing the successful experience of individual projects that contribute to demedicalization and humanization of obstetric practices.