During a working trip to Kaliningrad, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the Regional Perinatal Centre, where in the early hours of October 31, a baby was born who may represent the world’s 7-billionth resident
After congratulating the baby's mother, Yelena, Vladimir Putin presented her with a certificate for the improvement of housing conditions. The Nikolayev family already has a two-room apartment, which they will now be able to exchange for a larger one. The mother told the prime minister that the boy has been given the name Pyotr, and that he is a strong, healthy baby for whom they had been waiting for a long time.
Putin held the baby and said that he was beautiful. "How did you manage to have the 7-billionth child?" he asked. "That's his achievement. I am an ordinary mother," Yelena said.
She also said that the conditions at the Centre were very good, and thanked the prime minister for opening new pre-schools and primary schools. "I want to thank you, because a new kindergarten and a school with a swimming pool have opened here recently. I want all my children to go there," she said.
Putin asked how old Yelena's other children were. She said that her eldest son will turn seven around the New Year, and her daughter is five, so the new kindergarten and school are very important to her.
Upon leaving, Putin wished the family happiness and luck, and left his autograph on the housing certificate.
Ivan Marchuk, the Centre's chief doctor, told the prime minister about their work. The Centre opened in September 2009. Its cost of construction totaled 790.6 billion roubles, the bulk of which was provided by the federal budget. The Centre has a standard structure, in addition to a number of unique divisions, including a family planning centre and a genetic laboratory. The Centre has in many ways changed the statistics of birth rates and children's death rates, he said. Almost 30% of babies are delivered here, and a majority of future mothers treated by the centre have health problems. Children's death rates have become five times lower over the last ten years.
The prime minister asked about mothers' death rates. "It had been zero for three years," Marchuk said, "but, unfortunately, we had two deaths this year." "Why were you unable to save these two women? What were you lacking?" Putin asked. "They were not admitted soon enough," the chief doctor said.
Putin also visited the newborn pathology department, where sick babies and babies with a low birth-weight are treated (some of them weighed just over 500 grams at birth). Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov told Putin that when he visited the Centre several months before, the department was treating a girl that weighed 600 g. The girl is doing well and is already home, Marchuk said.
