At the entrance to the hospital, no one tried to change the guests into oversized gowns and slippers. A sweet smiling woman, the midwife of the gynecological department of the hospital, Susanna Hogstrom, invited us into the maternity wards, however, immediately warning that there would be no meetings or interviews with the clinic's patients: in Sweden it is generally not customary to violate the boundaries of private life.
I'll say right away that the wards in this municipal clinic more closely resembled comfortable rooms in a good hotel: double beds, jacuzzi baths, candles with a warm flame and stylish accessories - all of this was intended for happy families expecting the arrival of a baby. Yes, yes, precisely for families, because in a Swedish maternity hospital a woman lies together with her husband. A newborn baby first ends up in the arms of his father and only then - of the midwife or doctor.
Cases of fainting among Swedish fathers, of course, happen. But most often men bravely endure all the vicissitudes of childbirth, and some even manage to film the 'historical' event on a video camera. This stress-resistant behavior of Swedish men is primarily due to good psychological preparation: before childbirth, expectant parents visit not only shops where they can buy goods for newborns, but also special classes at maternity clinics.
The delivery table itself is located in a room adjacent to the suite. It is usually hidden in a niche behind a screen with a beautiful photo landscape, and at the first need, the cosmic miracle of technology emerges from the wall, with all necessary instruments and medications within arm's reach.
It was striking that here they accommodate any desire of the woman in labor: the room may have music she likes playing, her favorite flowers standing, and during contractions the expectant mother can lie in a bath (though water birth itself is viewed with caution in Sweden - there were cases when such experiments ended tragically for newborns).
Over the course of a year, an average of 1,250 children are born in the Kalmar maternity hospital, and the newborn mortality rate specifically in this clinic is zero; overall in the country, this indicator is three to four cases per thousand newborns. For comparison: in Russia and Belarus, almost 14 infants per thousand newborns die, and in Ukraine, according to various sources, from 14 to 22.
Almost all women in labor in Sweden, Susanna Hogstrom told us, give birth using epidural anesthesia, when one injection into the spine completely relieves a woman of pain. 'What about complications? It's dangerous for both the baby and the mother!' the female half of our group exclaimed in one voice. 'Why is it dangerous?' Susanna did not understand our questioning cry. 'We have never had complications associated with the use of such injections.' In our country, even in the 21st century, epidural anesthesia is considered a dangerous excess, and women in labor very rarely ask doctors for such a service.
The first birth for a Swedish woman usually occurs around age 29, and Swedish women also marry fairly late - they are almost the 'oldest' brides in Europe. In the Kalmar maternity hospital, as Susanna told us, 45-year-old women also give birth successfully, but such cases are rare even for Sweden.
Another fact: most children in the country are born into complete families, because more than 75% of Swedes prefer to live in marriage, whether official or civil.
Childbirth here is free. Moreover, both an aristocrat and an unemployed single mother receive absolutely identical care and medication, and they will lie next to each other and use the common kitchen-dining room and rest room. A symbolic fee is paid only for the father of the family's stay in the maternity clinic.
The birth rate in Sweden is much higher than ours. The key coefficient today is 1.9 children per woman.
But apparently, Swedes are much more concerned about low birth rates than we are. Therefore, a Swedish family receives about 1,000 kronor a month from the state for each child (from birth until they reach the age of 16 or until finishing school). As they say, it's a small thing, but nice. Moreover, this thousand kronor is received by every family - whether top managers or the unemployed: there is no difference. In this regard, arguments often flare up in society, saying that wealthy citizens could exist perfectly well without such state subsidies, but the wealthy immediately remind that they pay taxes regularly, and therefore have the right to their thousand kronor.
Families with more than three children receive additional state subsidies. Parental leave in Sweden is 12 months, with six months belonging to the mother and six to the father, and the parent who stays at home with the child is paid 80% of their previous salary. Mom or dad can transfer four of their parental months to the other parent, but two are obliged to use themselves at any convenient time until the child reaches the age of eight (!) years. Therefore, fathers with strollers or with babies in their arms in stores or on the streets are a common sight in Sweden.
As soon as the child turns one year old, for another 90 days, the parent who continues to remain on parental leave receives a state allowance of 60 kronor per day.
The so-called 'parental insurance' also includes the possibility of taking sick leave to care for a sick child (up to 60 paid days per year for each child in the family). Parents can count on such sick leave until the children reach the age of 12.
Is there a problem of single mothers in Sweden? As we understood, single mothers exist, but there is no problem. First, if an irresponsible father refuses paternity, then at the woman's request he will be subjected to a compulsory test to establish biological relationship with the born child. If the test is positive, then alimony will be collected from the father. At the same time, the baby's mother will receive benefits from the state, not from the child's father. Dad will also pay alimony into the state treasury. Thus, a woman can be spared from often unpleasant contacts with her former lover, his employers and bailiffs.
And if a woman initially did not count on a man's help in raising a child and gave birth, as they say, for herself? In this case, she will receive social benefits sufficient not to live in poverty and not to fear for her own future and that of her baby.
Continuing our tour of the Kalmar hospital, our group visited the neonatal unit - at that time seven premature babies were lying there. The clinic also has a surgical department - about 15% of women giving birth in Sweden today give birth by cesarean section, but doctors take this step only in extreme cases, and often even insist on natural childbirth.
We were pleasantly amazed by the clinic staff - these people radiated a completely special light, they smiled very often, joked, patiently answered our questions and posed in front of numerous lenses.
In the gynecology department we were told that about 20% of Swedish women of childbearing age suffer from infertility. Therefore, artificial insemination is very popular in the country. Such a procedure costs 15-20 thousand kronor, but the first attempt at test-tube pregnancy is free. Artificial insemination is not performed in Kalmar - laboratories specializing in such services are available only in clinics in large cities.
In the Kalmar hospital we saw (I hope) the tomorrow of our gynecology - the instruments and office equipment did not evoke the eternal horror that women of the post-Soviet space are accustomed to experiencing when meeting a gynecologist in a district clinic. One of the Moldovan journalists, looking at the gynecological chair, even asked where the steps were by which the patient should climb onto it. In response, the doctor pressed a button on the remote control, and the chair smoothly lowered.
It is hard to imagine that in this country, where the state takes such care of women and creates all conditions for them to give birth and raise children, still every third pregnancy ends in abortion. Only in the Kalmar hospital about 400 such operations are performed annually, and across the country there are 33 thousand abortions per year.
Needless to say, Swedes do not lack contraceptives; moreover, for young people under 22, condoms are free, and other contraceptives are sold to boys and girls at affordable prices in pharmacies. And yet, there are frequent cases of underage girls coming for abortions. Doctors, preserving medical confidentiality, do not contact the girls' parents, but require that young patients first inform their family and only then make a decision about the fate of the unborn child. However, if a girl wants to keep everything secret from her relatives and insists on terminating the pregnancy, she will be given an abortion.
As one of the possible reasons for the high number of abortions, Swedes cite women's reluctance to take hormonal contraceptives. The first generations of these medications were very dangerous to health; today pharmacology has come a long way, but the fear remains.
Allow me to put forward a version that the fairly calm attitude of Swedish society towards abortion may also be influenced by the fact that Swedes are not the most religious nation in the world. 87% of the country's residents are Protestants (and without fervor, like most northerners), and Protestantism has always treated the issue of abortion with greater "understanding" than Catholicism or Orthodoxy.
The entire system of parental insurance, introduced in Sweden in the early 70s, was based on two postulates: first, it was supposed to reduce the financial gap between families with children and childless married couples, and second, to promote equality of rights between men and women. But, in my opinion, there is still some monstrous flaw in the system (possibly at the level of setting the goals and objectives themselves), if every third Swede today is not destined to be born. However, if we recall our domestic abortion statistics, we can immediately stop worrying about the Swedes...
Parental insurance in Sweden is only part of an extensive health insurance system and one of the main elements of state family policy. The well-known researcher of business cultures, Geert Hofstede, classifies Swedish culture as the most feminine. In masculine cultures, dominant values are success, money, rewards, property. In feminine ones, the most important are relationships, quality of life, and care. Over the past decades, Swedes have persistently built a society that cares about people. Sometimes even too caring.
We, on the other hand, who have never known what quality of life is, have over 15 years become unaccustomed to the concept of "state care." And I fear that even if someday such wonderful conditions for having children are created in our country as in a small provincial Swedish town, we will spend decades to acquire a new system of relationships.
Not long ago, a friend of mine, who landed in the gynecology ward of a hospital in the last months of pregnancy, told me that all the nurses addressed expectant mothers exclusively by surname and the word “patient”. So our “patient” set about educating the medical staff by learning the nurses’ surnames and loudly addressing them as nothing other than “healthy Petrova (Sidorova, Ivanova)”. She says it helped - ever since, everyone in the ward called the girl by her first name and even didn’t stumble over the hard-to-pronounce patronymic she got from her Avar dad.
Good service in domestic medical institutions is also possible, but, as a rule, at a separate price. I asked Suzanne whether any special service was possible at the Kalmar maternity hospital for an extra fee - for example, if a very wealthy city woman came to the clinic to give birth. “No,” Suzanne replied. “We already offer our patients the very best - service, medications, equipment. Every woman in labor, regardless of her social status, has access to everything our clinic has.”
Naturally, after this Swedish “fairy tale,” our compatriot may wonder: maybe I should give birth to my baby there? Yes, please. It’s just that childbirth for a foreigner will no longer be free; for example, in Kalmar it will cost about $2,000.
Saying goodbye to the staff of the Kalmar maternity hospital, I asked whether Swedish dads give doctors and midwives flowers and gifts when they leave the clinic with their baby and happy mother. “No, it’s not customary for us,” Suzanne said in surprise. “What, do you have such a custom in your country? What a wonderful tradition! You really are amazing people.”