PART I. OBSTETRIC CARE SYSTEM IN RUSSIA

Mother and Child Healthcare System in Russia is supported by the state, municipal and social measures which allow women to combine maternity and child-rearing with active participation in professional, social and public activities.

The state continuously improves the complex of socio-economical and healthcare measures for legal provision of available medical care, implementation of public guarantee programs for social and free medical care. Improvements were achieved in the combination of public, municipal and private healthcare systems, as well as in the public-private partnership (state enterprise with the participation of private capital).

General principles of organization of obstetric and gynecological care are based on the following:

1. First, stage-based principle of provision of preventive and medical care for non-pregnant women (starting from maintaining the health of girls and their preparation for motherhood).

2. Complex of measures within antenatal fetal protection and maintaining the woman?s health during pregnancy.

3. Intranatal fetal protection during labor including rational labor management with the use of modern perinatal family-oriented technologies.

4. Protection of the health of newborns, provision of optimal conditions for their physical development.

5. Early diagnosis, prevention and treatment of gynecological diseases, preservation of woman?s reproductive function.

The main objectives of the organization of the national obstetric-gynecological and neonatal care are to decrease the maternal and perinatal mortality that are the main quality indicators of medical care.

For the evaluation of the mother and child welfare system and development of effective solutions for management aimed at prevention of maternal and perinatal mortality, WHO recommends to consider the number of new indicators: fetomaternal mortality (FMM) which combines stillbirth rate and infant mortality, as well as reproductive losses.