In the framework of the family-friendly and family-oriented approach, developments were made from almost half a billion HUF at the two units of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and at the 1st Department of Pediatrics at Semmelweis University. Katalin Novák, Minister Without Portfolio for Family Affairs, visited the renovated family-friendly department of obstetrics of the Üllői street section, and she was shown around the renewed rooming-in part of the department consisting of 13 beds by Dr. Béla Merkely, Rector and Dr. Nándor Ács, Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Semmelweis University won almost half a billion (497 million HUF) central budget support in the 2018 tender for the “Development of Infrastructural Conditions for Family-Friendly, Family-Oriented Intensive Care and Premature Birth” program. As a result of the tender, infrastructural investments and equipment procurements were implemented at three locations of the university, the Üllői street section of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Baross street section and the 1st Department of Pediatrics, which help to create a state-of-the-art, family-friendly environment and family-centered approach at the obstetric wards and in premature birth care as well as neonatal care.
“We are proud to have won such a significant amount in this tender, as part of which we were able to renovate parent rooms and create new hybrid delivery rooms. With this support, premature birth care may become more family-friendly at the Perinatology Intensive Care Centre of the 1st Department of Pediatrics as well. We consider it very important to provide everyone with the opportunity to meet the newborn baby in the most loving environment, so we have created a barrier-free room as well”, the rector pointed out.
“Childbirth is an extraordinary moment in everyone’s life: it is an experience of a lifetime for both the baby, the father and the mother, which is why it is very important where and under what circumstances the birth takes place”, emphasized Katalin Novák.
The Minister Without Portfolio for Family Affairs considers it important for mothers to be able to have their babies in the safest possible conditions and to spend their first days in a dignified environment. That is why the government is spending ten billion HUF on the renewal of obstetric departments in Hungary. Out of the 68 obstetric departments in Hungary, 59 successfully applied for and received support for development.
“The development of half a billion HUF is in a good place at Semmelweis University, since several thousands of families can experience the miracle of birth here”, Katalin Novák said.
The Minister Without Portfolio for Family Affairs also added that the desire to have children and the number of births have been growing steadily over the past ten years.
During the tour, Dr. Nándor Ács, Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, explained that the Üllői street section had been renewed from a 280 million HUF tender source. Two new hybrid delivery rooms have also been established, which provide the opportunity to perform the Cesarean section in a unique way in Hungary, within the delivery room, in the presence of the family, in a family-oriented way. In the completely renovated, 24-hour rooming-in section consisting of 13 beds, the babies can be with their mothers all day long, therefore responsive breastfeeding can also be realized.
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The wards all have a private bathroom, and a separate examination room and communal area have also been created for the in-patients. In the tender, equipment was also purchased to help provide a family-friendly approach to newborns and preterm babies in the amount of approximately 80 million HUF (e.g. birthing bed, fetal monitor incubator, newborn bed, respiratory therapy device).
As part of the tender, development related to the placement of parents (baby-mother’s room) took place at the 1st Department of Pediatrics at a value of approximately 33 million HUF. The air-conditioning capacity has been expanded, doors and windows have been renovated, sensory hand sanitizers have been installed and a lactation-consultation room has also been set up. In addition, within the framework of the tender, family-friendly development took place in the Baross street section of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from a tender source of approximately 102 million HUF.
Orsolya Dávid
Photo: Attila Kovács – Semmelweis University
Translation: Katalin Illés-Romhányi
