Thursday, 20 January 2022
Czech Perinatology Hands to Cambodia!
The Vita et Futura Foundation was selected by the Czech Development Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic for a challenging mission – to help Cambodia reduce maternal and child mortality during childbirth. A team of perinatology specialists from the U Apolináře Maternity Hospital set out on an assessment mission. The project builds on the previous cooperation of our neonatologists, obstetricians and biomedical engineers with the local National Pediatric Hospital in Phnom Penh, dating back to 2018. The task of the current team of specialists is to comprehensively assess the current state of maternal and child healthcare in this distant country.
Monday, 24 January 2022
Not everything in Cambodia is sunshine and roses. One of our doctors drew the short straw immediately upon arrival – in the form of a positive COVID-19 test. COVID simply does not discriminate, and despite a negative PCR test in the Czech Republic before departure, it still found its way to Dr Přáda. We had anticipated the risk and had appropriate insurance, but it was still a shock for everyone. Honza spent his first days in Cambodia in isolation. Directly from the airport, he was escorted to the National Centre for Tuberculosis and Leprosy – experiencing the reality of the Cambodian healthcare system first-hand. It soon became clear that we needed to move him from the rather inhospitable isolation facility. Fortunately, we eventually managed to transfer him to a hotel specially designated for foreigners in quarantine. This required considerable negotiation and expense, including a mandatory USD 4,000 hotel deposit, but it was worth it. Our mission continued without our colleague Přáda, which made things very difficult for everyone. We hoped that Honza would test negative as soon as possible and would still have a chance to experience at least a little of Cambodia with us.
Tuesday, 25 January 2022
As soon as the Czech Perinatal Hands arrived in Cambodia, they got straight to work. The team of specialists from the U Apolináře Maternity Hospital immediately became part of a round-table discussion focused on maternal and child healthcare at the National Pediatric Hospital in Phnom Penh.
The meeting, organised by the Czech Embassy in Cambodia, lasted the entire day. Experts from Germany and South Korea, as well as representatives of the WHO, also participated as part of the international cooperation.
Our project received very positive feedback and great satisfaction was expressed with everything that had been prepared. The Czech legacy in Cambodia was still very much alive, giving us a strong foundation on which to build.
Wednesday, 26 January 2022
The mission was clear! We had to arrive on time for a meeting with the Cambodian Minister of Health. The taxi failed to show up, so it was time for some Czech improvisation…
Wednesday, 26 January 2022
News of our mission spread throughout Cambodia. Czech healthcare professionals have long enjoyed the trust of the country’s medical community.
We were even received by the Cambodian Minister of Health, Professor Mam Bunheng.
The meeting, attended by the Czech Ambassador to Cambodia, Martin Vávra, took place in a relaxed atmosphere. The Minister’s genuine interest in actively addressing maternal, neonatal and child mortality was evident.
He personally reviewed the project materials and welcomed the proposed assistance and its effectiveness, particularly the fact that the projects were applicable to Cambodian conditions.
Original gifts were also presented – a glass miniature of the Czech Lion by Rony Plesl and a signed photograph from the Life series by Jan Saudek.
Our visit received extensive coverage in the Cambodian media, naturally in Khmer.
BTV: https://news.btv.com.kh/public/article/8499…
Khmer Pit News: https://www.khmerpit.news/archives/227…
Thursday, 27 January 2022
As we have already mentioned, the Czech legacy in Cambodia was still very much alive. In a photograph from 1987, you can see the young Czech gynaecologist and obstetrician Alois Martan, who was working at a hospital in Phnom Penh as part of humanitarian assistance to Cambodia.
In the second half of the 1980s, he was one of the doctors who helped rebuild Cambodia’s healthcare system. This challenging mission took place just eight years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, which had been responsible for the deaths of a quarter of Cambodia’s population. Only around 1,200 members of the country’s entire intellectual elite survived the regime. Medical personnel were also severely affected.
Professor Martan, now Head of our Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at U Apolináře, made a significant contribution at the time to rebuilding perinatal care for mothers and babies.
His wife, paediatrician Hana Martanová, also assisted him. Working in the outpatient department of a Cambodian hospital, she treated its youngest patients and established a much-needed patient registry.
Friday, 28 January 2022
A Significant Legacy of Czech Assistance to Cambodia
At the end of our assessment mission, we had the opportunity to visit Cambodia’s nearly completed first perinatology centre. 
It was scheduled to open at the end of 2022.
The centre will be the first in the country to meet a key requirement of comprehensive perinatal care: neonatology and maternity services operating as an integrated unit under one roof. The management of the hospital in Phnom Penh decided to build the new facility following a visit to our Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at U Apolináře three years earlier. During their stay in the Czech Republic, Cambodian doctors saw first-hand how closely neonatal and obstetric care are interconnected.
This is essential because it eliminates the need to transport premature babies from one healthcare facility – the maternity hospital – to another – the neonatal department, a common situation in Cambodia. Such transfers often involve long distances, difficult journeys and poor communication, sometimes even without an ambulance, which can have fatal consequences for newborns.
We toured the construction site and were able to see for ourselves that the new perinatology facility will undoubtedly make a major contribution to improving the quality of maternal and child healthcare.
We are pleased that long-term Czech assistance in the field of perinatology is beginning to deliver significant results in Cambodia. And there is more to come: as part of the CzechAid project, specialists from our maternity hospital are preparing multidisciplinary educational programmes for both healthcare professionals – doctors and midwives – and pregnant women in Cambodia.
A Different Country, Different Customs: What Does Postpartum Recovery Look Like in Cambodia?
The Czech perinatology mission to this Asian kingdom was thorough and wide-ranging. As healthcare professionals from U Apolináře travelled around local maternity facilities as part of a project implemented in cooperation with the Vita et Futura Foundation and financially supported by theCzech Development Agency – CzechAid, they observed several interesting local practices. One of these was repeatedly seen in postnatal wards. Despite temperatures often exceeding 30°C and extremely high humidity, all mothers wear knitted hats after giving birth. According to local tradition, these help maintain the body’s balance and are also believed to reduce postpartum pain. Whether wearing a hat or not, however, mothers everywhere share the same thing – their babies are the most precious thing in the world.
2 February 2022
The assessment mission in Cambodia came to an end, and the healthcare professionals from U Apolináře returned to the Czech Republic. They brought home plenty of experiences, but also a great deal of work ahead of them. There is certainly plenty to do. Maternal and child healthcare needs to be addressed comprehensively, both within healthcare facilities and beyond them.
One of the initiatives involves developing mobile maternity applications to support Cambodian women in everyday clinical practice. Our specialists will also gradually train Cambodian doctors in obstetric procedures and newborn care. The aim is for them to eventually be able to educate future generations of healthcare professionals themselves.
We confirmed that almost everyone in Cambodia has a smartphone. For our project, implemented by the Vita et Futura Foundation with support from the Czech Development Agency and the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this provides an important opportunity. We can launch a mobile application designed to educate and guide current and future Cambodian mothers throughout pregnancy. Most importantly, it will tell them when they should attend a check-up and what examinations to expect. The application is based on the professional maternity app “U Apolináře.” In a country where healthcare is not always physically accessible to everyone and much of the population lives in remote areas, this may be one of the most effective ways to reach women and provide them with essential information.
24. května 2022
Thanks to cooperation with Czech healthcare professionals, the very first cardiotocography (CTG) monitor has arrived at the
The device is used for the early detection of fetal distress during labour.
The monitor was ceremonially handed over to the hospital director, Nhep Angkeabos, and the head of the maternity department, Dr Huot Chantheany, by Dr Radek Čábela from the U Apolináře Maternity Hospital, who had already been working at the hospital for several weeks as part of Czech assistance to Cambodian obstetrics.
The device was purchased with funding from the Vita et Futura Foundation, beyond the scope of the ongoingCzech Development Agency – CzechAidproject Czech Perinatology Hands to Cambodia.
