Ministry Of Health
Polish Women Who Do Not Know They Are Pregnant Lose Maternity Benefit
Classified Polnews
Warsaw, Poland 28 January 2010 - A law intended to encourage Polish women to get checkups early in their pregnancy is causing many women in Poland to be ineligible for their lump sum birth benefit.
Since 2006 all Polish women have been eligible for a single lump sum payment of 1,000 PLN when their child is born.
But in November, 2009 eligibility for the payment is limited to women who can provide medical certificates from early phases of their pregnancy. That requires a pregnant woman to the doctor within 10 weeks after conception.
“The laws are scandalous,” Federation for Woman and Family Planning manager Wanda Nowicka said.
“Three months ago the Ministry of Labour was warned that many women in their tenth week don’t even know they’re expecting,” Ms Nowicka said.
“And if they know, getting to a doctor can be troublesome. All this was predictable. But the State decided to cut back spending on pregnant women.”
One of the first affected, Wioletta Farna, found out about her pregnancy in her twelfth week. Her first doctor’s visit was two weeks later. At that time she was still a candidate for the family benefit.
Her baby was born on November 4, 3 days after the legislative changes were enforced.
“One thousand zloty is a lot of money me”, the single unemployed mother said.
“I found out I was expecting a child in my twelfth week. Earlier, I didn’t have any symptoms. Sometimes I wouldn't get my period for six months. I got my pregnancy card in my fourteenth week. Is that my fault?”
Substitute director of the maternity clinic at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration hospital in Warsaw dr Krzysztof Szafranko said that not all women have symptoms right from the beginning of their pregnancy.
“Besides, many women cannot afford a private gynecologist and they have to wait in queues to doctors even for some weeks. In such situations they don’t stand a chance of making it on time,” he said.
“In cities women are getting by somehow. It’s much worse in the country, where access to doctors is much worse. In their case getting medical certificates in the first 10 weeks is outright impossible,” Lódz director of the Centre of Social Benefits Grzegorz Pilaszek said.
The Ministry for Labour and Social Policy said the main reason for what they called “late” medical reports of women in the early stages of pregnancy was their own negligence.
“The concept itself was good,” PiS parliamentarian Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska said.
“The intention was to encourage women to get medical checkups, also for the good of the child,” she said.
“Unfortunately the law has proven to be too rigorous.”
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By Victoria Ziarkowski
Freelance Writer
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