Prague - To be able to give birth in Prague´s Motol hospital, women will have to register well in advance.
From the beginning of December, Motol is to join the other hospitals in the capital, where women traditionally go to deliver their babies - in Apolinářská street and Podolí, where such practice has been used for some time.
The reason behind this is simple: maternity hospitals are struggling with extraordinary demand for their services.
Women usually have to personally register in a hospital after twelfth or thirteenth week of pregnancy. No upper limit is set, but the risk of being refused grows progressively with time.
A necessary measure
Czech newborns per year
Year Number
2000 89 754
2001 89 425
2002 91 502
2003 92 387
2004 96 098
2005 100 519
2006 104 129
Source: National Maternal Register
"We have had to introduce that. We already have three thousands childbirths a year, and we don't want to further discomfort women in childbed. They already have to wait a while after their deliveries before being allowed to see their child," says Tomáš Binder, the head of maternity ward in Motol.
He pointed out, though, that the registration duty is not to concern the cases of problematic pregnancies.
Virtually all Prague maternity wards struggle with such "overpressure". Even Thomayer's hospital admitted problems, but they still aren't planning to introduce this obligation.
"We did have to start refusing mothers recently, since there was no space left for them," admits Marta Svobodová, the senior nurse of the maternity ward in Thomayer's hospital.
Only in Prague
Number of childbirths in the Czech Republic is growing steadily since 2001, so all the hospitals are experiencing difficulties. Only hospitals in Prague, however, are forced to introduce the unpopular registration measures.
"Prague is different, because there are other factors in addition to natural population growth. Plenty of foreigners come to Prague to give birth, as well as women from the whole Central Bohemian Region," explains Binder.
Despite the babyboom, which the country enjoys at the moment, many smaller-size maternity hospitals near Prague thus face the danger of being closed.
Facilities in Rakovník, Nymburk, Slaný, Kutná Hora, Mělník and Beroun, all within 60 kilometres or so from Prague, could be affected.
