about the situation with recovery in different regions of ukraine, about people's rights, opportunities and personal experience. this is what olga's house looked like last year, and what does it look like now? i am not spending money at the moment. however, how to unite the country in the process of recovery in the project of the program of reconstruction and development of cities. every saturday at 18:30 at espresso. today i am visiting a person who is extremely dedicated to her work, this is oleksandra balyasna, she is the head of the board of the association of parents of children born in the womb, early birds, and she is also a member of the advisory board of the european foundation about the health of newborn children. sasha, i welcome you here today in this studio, hello, thank you very much for the invitation, it is a great honor for me to be on the air, on your program.

look, i want to talk to you today about your war experience. we understand that on february 24, 2022, although the war has been going on for more than 10 years in our country, it was this date that changed the lives of many ukrainians. and i want to hear your experience today, because it is very important, because children continue to be born during the war. and even more so children in a hurry, who do not ask anyone and are also born, and they need even more such, let's say, specific medical care, so i want you to share your experience today, tell about all this to our viewers, and let's start from this very date: what what did you do on this day, where was your family and how did this date change your life? february 24 for me. as well as for all

ukrainians, it was enough of a shocking change, we in our family did not prepare for this, of course, there were many conversations about it, there was a lot in the context of such a space of information, but at the same time the suitcases were not packed, because they did not believe that this could happen in the center of the city, in the center of the country, and in any case , crisis decisions had to be made on this day, and for the entire team to provide in the first place order safety, safety, so that everyone moves to safer ones. place, for each family, some of them made the right decisions, some of them not so much, and they ended up in more noisy areas near kyiv, but in any case, it took a certain amount of time, a few days, a few weeks, for everyone to they felt more stable, they were very worried about our colleagues in mariupol, when the green window did not light up for a very long time until the middle of march, they were very worried about our colleagues in dnipro, those who had not been contacted for a long time, they tried to settle down, find them. ..

plan b, where they can feel safer, protect themselves and their children. actually, for the first time, they were engaged in this chaotic process of moving people, and at the same time they tried to dig out all the messages that poured in, which were completely different, as they say, private nature, there was a lack of drugs, somewhere there was a lack of some vaccine, somewhere it was necessary to help with logistics, that is, there were absolutely requests. of different calibers, and on the one hand, this brought us together more, i tried to do it around the clock, on the other hand, it was very disconcerting, because when you run in different directions at the same time, it also does not help you orient yourself, but i think that this is what most people did in this moment in order to help as many people as possible, but it's good that this one the period then moved into more organized processes and where we can be more efficient, organize... our work

more systematically, i know that my next question will be the same for you, because you don't really like to talk about it, because you love your country very much, and you understand how much you are needed here, but nevertheless, your help to your country has not decreased, but only increased, and this is a new experience that you have received, because you are now living with your daughter abroad, and there are a lot of women, people like you, public figures who were quite active in our country, when they found themselves there abroad, they suffer incredibly and talk about the fact that they do not have the opportunity to fully realize themselves, how do you feel about this, and tell me about this experience? it's really a difficult topic for me, because i always felt and still feel very connected to my native country, but i'm very grateful for the times that taught us to work remotely, almost... the whole team

has changed their place of residence, but it's not interferes my mother calls us every week, every day i work with my colleagues, wherever they are, so the processes remain as active when i go home and try to do it as often as possible, and my, let's say, additional strength and advantages from my stay border, i build in such a way that i just learned the language, for example, at a level so that i can understand the local population, i build social contacts and a bubble that helps to send aid, that is, this year a charity fund was opened, which we are engaged in, for to send humanitarian aid to centers for helping refugees, we have several partners in ukraine, accordingly , i believe that this... is such an additional mechanism of assistance where we can be useful, where we can be helpful, and this building international partnerships, attracting donors, this is advocacy so that there are no questions, and you still have a war going on, when i hear these questions, i understand that we still have a

lot to say so that other political processes in the arena do not interrupt the voice of ukrainians , and for for us, this is an important topic of advocacy, that our children, our doctors, hospitals continue to work under se... under terrible challenges and at the risk of life every day, and it is important to me that this voice sounds truthfully, with the highest possible quality in the european arena, i try it's to do it the way i can do it by getting partnership and help and we're going to need that help to rebuild when the war is over, we 're going to need that help for a long time, so i think it's mine, you could say maybe it was not always my choice to live where i am, but i am trying to change it, transform it into a positive direction and use it in this way, well, if we are talking about aid and difficulties, if they have to explain to europeans that the war is still going on in our country, this aid, it may have decreased somehow , you need to tell them more,

you need to do it more loudly and more often compared to when it was at the beginning in 2022, of course, of course the controversy is very strong with... and it changed as expected, in principle , dramatically, it changed somewhere around this the first emotional period was when everyone helped, there was practically no control on all issues or there was no such, let's say, verification of such strong ones, then a process of strong selective help began, where it goes, it was already monitored so that it was systematic, to make it transparent, i think that in principle it is very correct that it should be controlled, but... on the other hand, i would like more support for important issues, especially on the topic of newborn children, because some processes are still ongoing are not closed, it seems to me that now every life of a newborn child is extremely important, i'm not saying that it wasn't important before, but now, with the birth rate

having fallen by more than 30%, that there are many very negative consequences for the health of newborns children of each family, i believe that it needs more publicity and support. when i go to international forms and see that there is a block about war, and there are no recent statistics, or there is no impact of war on the health of newborn children in the perspective of some there, if we are talking about the future, about the cut, i want it to be there, and we understood what generation we will get in 5, 10, 20 years, it is important to think about it today. sasha, well, you are talking about the fact that the birth rate actually fell by 30%. and if we talk about children born prematurely, in connection with... the fact that there is a war in our country, has there been an increase in the number of families in which children appear in a hurry, or can you still say that compared to in 2015-16, everything is as it was, it is difficult for me to rely on any statistics, because it should be official so that i don't cite any incorrect data, i know from various sources that

statistics do increase premature births, but somehow the ministry of health does not name a specific number, so it is difficult for me to rely on it. from the conversations that i know from the medical category, well , let's say, when i talk to doctors, that i hear that the condition of the beneficial ones has worsened a lot, they get untimely for examination, sometimes they are in very bad conditions, there are not always logistical possibilities to reach the base just to hospitals, because, for example, the roads are broken, or it was, for example, an occupied territory, and the pregnant woman cannot receive this assistance in time, the child receives screenings in a timely manner, for example, during or during pregnancy or after the child is born. was born, accordingly, any such delay is precisely from our category, with our nosology, it is very important, and it will later affect the quality of life as a whole, therefore also the psychological state of the pregnant woman, we should not forget about this either, well, the psychological state of the pregnant woman i would say that even births, when there was no war, are premature, they are very

stressful, just recalling my experience, or my colleagues who found themselves in various stories, where children also received some difficulties after apologizing, but now it is full. headquarters invasion, where there are also sirens, for example, there is no partner nearby, if the partner had to go, the husband had to go to fight, and he cannot be at the partner's childbirth, or god forbid, there are, unfortunately, such situations when eh... news arrives that this woman is profitable, and unfortunately, information arrives that there is no longer a partner near her. these cases are extremely complex for conducting such profitability, and there are many such cases, that is, requests for psychological support and for financial, for example, help, because it is so , let's say, strongly affected by stress. we have had a lot of these requests. is there any possible psychological help in your organization for women? who live in ukraine, yes, maybe in the de-occupied territories, maybe somewhere in the front-line territories, who

call and want to be consulted, to be told what to do, where to go, and what words you actually find, because it is certain it is very important and very difficult now in such conditions. i would say that the international community helped us a lot, because i would share here our women who went abroad to give birth. prematurely abroad, because this is such an additional emotional layer of problems, because in addition to the fact that a woman gives birth abroad without support, without understanding the language very often, without understanding the system, where to go, what to do with such a newborn baby in any country of the world, for example, there or in switzerland, whether it is poland, whether it will be spain, very often they turned to us from other countries in order to receive information in their native language, and that is why we are very grateful to the international community that

has acted as partners in this... this informational and psychological help worked in ukraine and works in the same way, the only thing is that it is often not calls, but it is still a messenger, which is more convenient, also because of the fact that, firstly, it is not always possible such mothers speak in a voice a day, they're quite busy in hospitals with different procedures and it's a traumatic experience for moms to have a hard time talking about their emotions because they're... usually stressed and at a stage where they need to talk about their particular situation that she just gave birth to a child prematurely, then there is, as they say, the trauma of a sense of guilt that she did not deliver the child, that the child has difficulties, and our psychologist yulia oleksandriv works with this sense of guilt, yulia oleksandriv manages the psychological service in our company, we have our partner organizations that work with us, and when we do not cope, we send to more professional help and... when we need help with crisis communications, we also know where to turn, so i am very grateful to

colleagues and partners who provide this pool with consultations, and i will not name everyone now, in order not to forget anyone, but in fact this pool of partners helps us to cope with difficult situations when they arise, therefore, for us, informational psychological assistance is the basis of the foundations, because this is the layer where most problems can be solved at this level. sasha, actually. talking about the impact of the war on families with premature babies, you and i have already talked before the broadcast, and you told me such stories, what these families faced, what are the main problems, and we are talking now not only about medicine, because these seven there, a mother and a child return home and they also have certain problems there, they have to somehow solve them during the war, but you can tell about it and... what do you advise in such a situation? in fact, we can advise be proactive, learn about your

rights, and that is why this year is very important for us, we are releasing a lot of informational products, because very often parents simply do not know about their rights, for example, we recently conducted a survey, do parents know about guaranteed without guaranteed services in the health care system, and we were a little shocked that 80% of parents do not know about their rights, that is, they marked, for example, from the category: mark from one to five how much information you have about services guaranteed by the state, then marked 80% alone, that is, they do not know, or , for example, only 10% knew what to do in the event that rights are violated, what should be done in such a case, and when we say, this is our project called guaranteed with our partners, patients of ukraine , and when we talk about what is important to do in this or that situation, it is important for us that parents still know where to turn, be pro... active, have this clear position that it depends on me, as in my my medical

history will continue to develop, for example, where i receive this service, to whom i go i can contact you, don't be afraid to ask, that's why it's important, look, this topic, it's actually very important, and that's why you can say exactly what rights you're talking about, so that women and men, families, in general, who will hear us now, they can understand , what rights do they really have , what are you talking about, when we conduct trainings, we even start with the question, do you know what nszu is, and... very often there are answers that we don't know what it is national health service, and since 2016 , medical reform has been ongoing in ukraine, and there are 44 packages medical guarantees, these are packages, one might say , classified... for various diseases, for various problems, now i am not talking only about premature babies, or only about pregnant women, or about the topic of children's rehabilitation, these are all problems in general, including strokes, which also concern many families in ukraine, and cancer, and even now four packages have been added about, for example, artificial insemination, for example, or

organ transplantation, that is, any disease that can fall into any of those packages, and we need these packages at least to understand whether there is... a disease or a problem that affects a particular patient, whether it is in the list of those packages, before running to a private clinic and deciding for yourself that you need to quickly solve this issue, understand their rights, and we teach this at trainings, we conduct consultations on this, we explain in detail how to do this, if the service was to be provided by a state body, a state clinic, for example there, or i don't know, a women's consultation or a prenatal center . and was provided for a fee, as to compensate for these costs, and there are also such cases, that is, it is our standard practice, how we advise, help, because we manage to convey the main idea now, if the families know that the services are covered, that the pregnant woman can count on the fact that they are guaranteed by the state , it’s from tests, management of a complicated pregnancy, it’s childbirth, and management of the child

after discharge, then there is no such stress and level of worries that you have to pay for it all out of your own... pocket, imagine a situation where a family from the de-occupied territory had to leave, have to rent an apartment, for example, the husband went to the front and does not have a stable income, the mother has a prematurely born child with a million questions, because this is a normal situation, there are many questions, and that is why we guarantee guaranteed services, we tell you that at least this a support, to reduce worries and stress for this family, and therefore it seems to us that it is precisely the information front of our work, of our organization. is now important and we try to keep it, it is also work with groups on an equal basis, when families who are already went through a difficult stage of parenting, can share their experience of parenting with other families who are going through this experience now, for example, we had a survey, we asked 90 families about the cases when families had to kangaroo,

that is, keep a baby weighing less than 2.5 kg skin to skin. on the chest, without separating mothers or fathers, if the mother could not breastfeed the child for physiological reasons, to what extent this process took place in different regions of ukraine during the full-scale invasion, more than 90 families shared with us their stories, some of them very touching, about these first bondings that happened for each family, how touching, important, and for some painful stories, where they did not have the opportunity to touch the child, where they were not told about... about this method, how important and useful it is, especially now during the absence of stable electricity, so for us such information products, projects and the opportunity to unite families, make groups equal, they are now tools for us, which, in our opinion, can make our dream come true, so that children are born healthier, give them the best start in life, and if

we are already returning to the families in which a sacramental child was born... well, what is in this package from the national health service for them, that they should know this free on a free basis, and when they were discharged, i understand that when they are in the hospital, it's one thing, but when the mother has already returned home, she has to, again, like us they said, one on one to be with the child, about what she has know? well, as i already said, there are 44 packages, in several of these packages, which concern our families. they concern, for example, the management of pregnancy, it is the birth itself, it is a caesarean section or a natural birth, it is even at the stage of the birth of a child in a transfer center or in a maternity hospital, it is, for example, even we have banks of breast milk, then even a consultation for lactation, they also enter there, this is actually all psychological support within the hospital, they also enter there, now

, in fact, families do not have an obligation for lists to buy medicine, as it was several years ago. literally because it was such a widespread practice, now most of the questions, most of the questions, not all the questions, of course if it's an improved ward there, or some special services, of course the family pays for it themselves, but the basic all the questions, they have be covered by medical insurance packages, and in such a case, for example, when a family is discharged and rehabilitation centers or catamnistic offices are operating, this is so that we provide pere, you can say a review of the child's condition already after discharge. at the stage of three, six, 12 months, and watched how it develops, that is, the child comes to the center, it is examined, whether there are any deviations from development, if specialized help of a narrow specialist is needed, then... everything is received by electronic code, that is in order to receive these services for free, it is important to receive this code, and then there is a referral, for example, a pediatrician, or if

it is, for example, from a perinatal center, then accordingly such a service must be provided free. it is important for us that parents know this, and accordingly, the family can rely on this and receive such financial stability, such a guarantee for themselves, which would give them a sense of peace in these troubled times, and guarantees with guarantees, but... we we understand that, again, in the de-occupied territories, in the pre-front territories, women also continue to give birth, and it very often happens that there is no longer any infrastructure there, because the hospitals, medical centers, they were destroyed by the russians, bombed, as in these situations, do such women come somewhere to safer regions, or refuse, and what happens there, in fact. it's really a problem that you can't equate the centers in kyiv, lviv, or, we can say in big cities, to small destroyed areas where the infrastructure is damaged, or

mothers don't have the opportunity to get even to this institution. yesterday we talked, for example, with doctors from kherson who, for example, had to freeze a part of their facility, but at the same time medical assistance continues to be provided, but of course that the emotional state and infrastructure and capabilities of such a hospital... cannot be compared to others, so i think that there should be more help in such institutions, in such locations from government structures in order to give them more support and maybe some administrative help with documents, in particular logistics with medical drugs where possible, i know there are mobile teams for pregnant women and help with mobile teams to get there, i am not sure if this is covered in all regions, i would like it to be in all regions, but in reality. according to our information, we see that these are often the areas where mothers do not receive full medical care, that is, we still want these issues to be a priority, so that

there is more support for these mothers, for these families, so far there is a feeling , that these families actually have to dig out, well, you can say, solve these issues independently, where the financial burden falls on them, because they have to rent housing and find services for themselves in the places and... they don't have anyone they know in these places, these are families who turn to us, for example, from de-occupied territories, they move and have to organize everything on their own, i have a feeling that it is extremely difficult for these families, and therefore i would like to have more assistance programs for families who had moving with young children, so what are the basic resources that families who have a newborn baby, prematurely born, yes, these resources, for example, when we talk about hospitals, is our medicine able to cope with all this, because we are with you too before the broadcast, they talked about the fact that the air alarm sounds, there is no light, and doctors do not

leave such children, these children remain in the intensive care unit, and there is no way to transfer them, for example, to a shelter. i would say that now it is extremely important to support the medical front, first of all from the implementation of the reform, i also hear many questions so that the reform also... covers the basic needs of the doctor, so that there is still a decent payment, so that the packages are balanced for that the doctor's conditions are decent, let's say, we are in partnership in this we are very much looking forward to the patient's rights being implemented and fully covered, as well as the doctor's rights, our organization does what it can in terms of burnout prevention trainings, this is usually a block of our patient rights trainings, because we understand where there are not a burned-out doctor, that's where the best medical services will be available, so we understand that it must be balanced 50 by 50 in order to provide the highest quality services, and therefore

we are only in such conditions where the dignity of both parties will be adhere to, there will be a dialogue on at the same level, will be provided comfortably, there will be this trust, there will be this dialogue and the best services will be provided, therefore, returning to the question, it is important for us that the revision of the reform and... implementation take into account two sides, there should be no distortions in which direction and that funding was fully for such babies basic services from pregnancy management to support of the child at the stage of weaning as well as after the provision of follow-up, rehabilitation, early intervention until the child stands on its feet and is socialized, actually this is a long process, accordingly the packages that exist, they help to rely on it, they should have on our legal. basis, all the protocols should be written under it, and then we will be able to know that this system works. it's a big process, it's a long process, but i'm inspired by our medical teams who keep going.

are working, incredibly fulfilling the mission, despite all the challenges that are around, that is, we believe in it, we work together, we try to do what is up to us, but you talk about this long process, and in that you and i used to talk, and you told us how doctors from abroad came to us, they were simply shocked, how professionally our doctors could work during the war, and how much our... help to ukrainian medicine went up, in fact, i won't go far, i was just this morning and yesterday i was at a pediatric congress, the largest pediatric platform in which people stand on the sides, they are a lot of students, a lot of talk about building our future, the medical community that will work for the future of this country, and it is very inspiring that the people who are here, they care about every child, about every pediatric

community... in general, it has a sacred mission to make the future of ukraine as healthy as possible, and for that , so that these ukrainians were free and healthy, and, that is , there were still two sides, and it is very inspiring, in fact, sasha, i know that you actually know a lot of stories that happened during the war, but can you briefly tell some the success story of one of the families of prematurely born children there are? we have quite a lot of stories that yulia oleksandra tells us, we have a parents' chat, and very often there are such stories that inspire us, since, for example, the pregnancy said that there is no chance, this pregnancy, well, it must be aborted, but for example, a mother says: i believe in this child, i believe in this pregnancy, yulia accompanies her, for example, and then we celebrate a year with this family, then we celebrate with the middle, when the child left, in fact, such stories

when ee.. . say some guidelines for a certain child, for example, this child never will walk, this one will never be heard, or this child has no chance, they are always an element of faith, love and a lot of work behind it, in our communities we see many such stories that inspire and actually help us get up, sometimes even when there is no strength to believe that if this child walked, when they told her that she would never walk, then there is definitely a chance, and such stories, well... can you believe it, you can simply collect a whole album of them, there are many of them, and i can still i dream of publishing such a book someday, because it is very inspiring, in fact, every one of these stories. sasha, and about your personal experience that you received during the war, which you would never want to receive? a difficult question, i would never want to say goodbye to my family without knowing if i will see them again, oh, i

was asked an unexpected question. eh, because we never know when we will say hello to people again, because we said goodbye to them, and it was difficult to see people at the border, when mothers said goodbye to their husbands and did not know if they would be seen again, and in fact all goodbyes, or all congratulations, they have become more valuable, we do not know what tomorrow will bring, we live our experience every day, as if it has become extremely more valuable to us, and we do not know what tomorrow will bring, so we appreciate each day more, i would and i wanted to never say goodbye, not knowing if it will be tomorrow, i thank you for this openness, thank you for your strength, thank you very much for your support, because i really could not do anything myself without support, so i am very grateful to my and team, thank you, thank you to the partners who give the opportunity to make these movements based on the support of relatives and dear people with whom our values ​​coincide. oleksandra balyasna

visited us today. and this was the experience of war.