Postnatal care in Poland

Im a student midwife in london, we have been asked to research into the type of postnatal care offered in poland, so I was wondering do midwives visit women in the community after they have had their babies, if so for how long? do midwives routinely do blood tests on babies? are there any particular polish customs in the postnatal period, please help as I can't find anything on the internet about this topic!!!!!!!

Write to any medical school in Poland :)

or ask the polish embassy or consulate if they could point you in the correct direction :)

or ask your local polish community :D

or if any members of PF are polish and have any information they will post it :D

good luck in your research though.

Yes, a midwife visits the mother after delivery, can't recall how many times though - but please bear in mind that a new mother would stay in hospital for 3 to 5 days after the birth anyway. All necessary blood tests plus BCG injection are done during this hospital stay, and the babies are monitored for early signs of congenital disorders etc.

Afterwards, the baby is routinely called for checkups for immunizations, weighing etc. Mothers are strongly encouraged to breastfeed. This used to be done by doctors at so-called childrens' clinics, but under the new system I think it's the lekarz rodzinny (equivalent of GP) who would do that. I had my babies before the reforms so I don't rightly know. ;-) Hope that helped you a bit! :-)

Must be a british thing then as i was out the day after i had my daughter back in 1998, she was born on a sunday and i was home by dinnertime monday.

Sorry! When has this started? I was asking people today about visits from a midwife and not one person said that a midwife visited them including ourselves here in Pulawy.

Maybe we are a isolated case, but I think it is more common to visit the midwife rather than they come to your home.

As said, this was quite some time ago, so maybe things have changed since then (1991, 1995). A midwife used to come around about a week after delivery and check things up, and then maybe pop around again if there were any worries or refer you to the clinic. I had one child in Warsaw and one in Ełk, a small town (60 000 people). So I don't know.

Hi
I had a baby in Poland nearly 5 years ago. Send me a message if you'd care for more details :D
/cj