Sechenov Center for Maternity and Childhood opened after large-scale modernization

Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko and Rector of Sechenov University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Pyotr Glybochko opened the Sechenov Center for Maternity and Childhood after a large-scale overhaul and re-equipment.

The Sechenov Center for Maternity and Childhood was established in 2022 by uniting the Snegirev Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology. V.F. Snegirev Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Clinic of Pediatric Diseases. Modernization of the Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology, supported by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, transformed it from a maternity hospital into a federal perinatal center. It took 2.5 years to overhaul the building and completely re-equip it with modern equipment. The historical appearance of the building, recognized as a cultural heritage site, was preserved, while at the same time making all departments modern and comfortable for mothers and their children.

Mikhail Murashko, Minister of Health of the Russian Federation, noted that the Sechenov Center for Maternity and Childhood includes all the structural subdivisions that are necessary to make childbirth not only comfortable but also safe. There is a department of anesthesiology and resuscitation, a department of nursing newborns, the possibility of joint stay of mother and child. Dads and other family members can attend the birth. "This strengthens the family, allows close relatives to participate in the emergence of a new life into the world," said Mikhail Murashko.

It is also important that the center helps women to become mothers - the gynecological department and the department of assisted reproductive technologies equipped with modern equipment work for this purpose, the minister added.

In addition, the Sechenov Maternity Center is part of the Clinical Center of Health Sciences of Sechenov University, thanks to which doctors of almost any direction can help mother and child. "This is the highest level of medical care - a woman is surrounded by specialists necessary for safe motherhood," said Mikhail Murashko.

"As a result of large-scale modernization, we received a high-tech medical center within the structure of the multidisciplinary Clinical Center for Health Sciences of Sechenov University, where women, mothers, and children can receive medical care. The center is equipped with modern equipment, highly qualified specialists who perform all types of high-tech medical care work here", - said Rector of Sechenov University Pyotr Glybochko.

He noted that before the overhaul in the clinic of obstetrics and gynecology named after V.F. Snegirev Sechenov Center for Maternity and Childhood could receive 2.5 thousand births a year, and now this figure will grow to 4 thousand. And children can be observed in the center from birth to adulthood.

"It is very important for us that the center will be used not only to provide medical care, but also to train personnel for the health care system - these are both residents and graduate students. In addition, a special feature of the center is that it is an excellent scientific base. Today, within the framework of the Biomedicine Research and Technology Park of Sechenov University, we are creating new products that are being introduced into clinical practice for the treatment of our patients. The Sechenov Center for Maternity and Childhood has all the conditions to provide high-tech assistance, train specialists, and implement scientific developments. We are ready to fulfill the tasks set by the leadership of our country", - said the rector.

He thanked the Minister of Health for the support in modernization of the center.

The Minister and the Rector visited all departments of the renovated center, including a new department of pathology of newborns and premature babies. Now, babies born prematurely or with any pathologies will not need to be transported to another medical institution - doctors will help them right in the clinic, using modern equipment. Among the innovative equipment, for example, is a device for percutaneous determination of bilirubin level, which allows to establish a diagnosis and prescribe optimal treatment without taking venous blood from the newborn and without traumatizing him. In addition, ultrasound machines have been purchased - specially developed computer programs help to assess the progress of the fetal head, which makes delivery even safer. The department has rooms for joint stay of mother and child, which contributes to a good psychological state of the laboring woman.

In the labor ward, the guests toured the operating rooms and individual delivery rooms, where equipment has been installed that allows women to choose alternative soft methods of labor, such as water birth or vertical birth. The Minister was interested in Sechenov University's own developments used to help women in labor. Anatoly Ishchenko, Director of the V.F. Snegirev Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology, spoke about a new method of sealing the uterine suture during Caesarean section using amniotic membrane (placenta structure). Due to the content of stem cells in the sheath, healing improves, the number of complications decreases, and moms return to full life more quickly.

After childbirth, women can settle down in comfortable wards together with their babies. There are also family rooms - together with the young mother and baby there can be a father or other close relative of the baby.

The gynecology department was equipped with integrated operating rooms, where they will also use their own developments of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology No. 1 of Sechenov University, including, for example, the correction of genital prolapse using "titanium silk". Laser units and 3D visualization open new horizons of assistance to patients with various diseases of the reproductive system. The equipment allows connecting doctors from other clinics of the Clinical Center of Health Sciences of Sechenov University to the video broadcast of the operation and conducting intraoperative consultation. Video stream can also be transmitted to the classrooms where future pediatricians and gynecologists study.

The clinical and diagnostic department has been completely transformed - to make it convenient for patients, a new space for registration and an electronic queue have been organized. The department has introduced a number of new developments that allow to assess the condition of the uterine cavity and detect the earliest signs of fetal abnormalities.

And in the neonatal intensive care unit there is a ventilator for newborns with body weight from 500 grams, a device for therapy of pulmonary hypertension with nitric oxide, innovative incubators and an open multifunctional resuscitation system.

After visiting the departments, the minister and the rector talked to the staff of the center. Pyotr Glybochko thanked the staff for their work. He noted that even during the modernization doctors continued to work actively.

According to Mikhail Murashko, the staff of the clinic will work, and children will be born in excellent conditions.

The Minister also congratulated young mothers who gave birth to their first babies in the renovated Sechenov Center for Maternity and Childhood and presented them with bouquets of spring flowers.

In conclusion, Mikhail Murashko and Pyotr Glybochko approached the sculpture of a stork with a baby, which was installed on the territory of the Sechenov Center for Motherhood and Childhood after the renovation. They rubbed the beak of the bird, which has long been considered a symbol of birth and new life, for good luck and wished that the center would give birth to as many healthy children as possible.