The new directive of the Ministry of Health is being loudly discussed in the media and social networks: Russian women are advised to give birth wearing a mask due to safety restrictions associated with the coronavirus pandemic.
As "Rambler" found out, the Ministry of Health issued new rules for maternity hospitals, according to which childbirth should be taken in separate individual rooms, and the number of medical staff should be minimized. During childbirth, a woman should wear a protective mask, and it will be possible to remove it only during attempts.
The public reacted to this news ambiguously. The former chief sanitary doctor of Russia, State Duma deputy Gennady Onishchenko, in an interview with the radio station "Moscow speaking" noted that the authors of the initiative did not represent how the childbirth was going and did not understand how women in labor would follow such rules.
"It is hard to imagine that she was wearing a mask. There is no one to infect, because all the personnel who are standing around her, they must, in any case, be in a mask,"
- he noted.
Obstetrician-gynecologist Vladimir Sursyakov called the measure ridiculous, because a woman is in a critical situation during childbirth.
"At this moment, putting on a mask on her because, perhaps, this will reduce the likelihood of transmission of the virus by some fractions of a percent, it is ridiculous. Breathing actively in a mask is extremely difficult, it is the same as putting it on I would not take such a measure, "Sursyakov explained to the Ridus publication.
In social networks, the new rules were adopted more aggressively, explaining that during childbirth it is already very difficult for a woman, and it is not worth torturing her with a constant demand to put on a mask.
“Can a new-born child be immediately put on a mask or a gas mask?” They joke on the Web.
