Juan Garcia-Gallardo.
The Junta de Castilla y León will implement “pro-life” and birth promotion measures in the community as a reinforcement of psychological care for pregnant mothers, a protocol that allows parents to listen to the fetal heartbeat, offer a 4D ultrasound that complements the three conventional ones currently contemplated and protects the conscientious objection of health professionals.
This was announced this Thursday by the vice president of the regional Executive, Juan García-Gallardo, following the disclosure of these measures at the meeting of the Governing Council.
García-Gallardo has stressed that It is an agreement “negotiated and agreed” with the Ministry of Health and that supposes the development of the Government agreement between PP and Vox signed on March 10 of last year, specifically in relation to points 12 and 13 for the support of families and the promotion of births.
Thus, the new measures that have been approved by instruction of the director, Alejandro Vázquez, and that this Thursday has been communicated to the Board, they will be an obligatory offer for the professional, who “should tell the woman that she has these three possibilities” -psychosocial care, fetal heartbeat and 4D ultrasound-, while its use or not will be a voluntary decision of the woman. “She is not going to force her to listen to her baby’s heartbeat if she doesn’t want to,” García-Gallardo stressed.
Specifically, psychosocial care will be guaranteed to all mothers “who require it” through a Sacyl psychologist, care that will be voluntary for women but “imperative for professionals”which must offer both this and the rest of the measures adopted by the autonomous Administration, and which seeks that “they have all the support to face the pregnancy in the best circumstances and feel accompanied”, so that they can choose between the “natural and proper” decision to continue with the pregnancy and the “social tragedy” of abortion, which leaves “a mark on women” and implies “a drama”.
The Autonomous Administration will provide the psychological assistance required by the pregnant woman in the emotional sphere, through the access to care by a clinical psychologistfor which a procedure of referral from Primary Care to mental health teams for preferential care for people who require it.
preferential attention
Both García-Gallardo and the Board’s spokesman, Carlos Fernández-Carriedo, have stressed that Psychological care will be strengthened within the public community health system so that pregnant women who request it receive “preferential care”.
In this sense, Fernández Carriedo has clarified that the economic endowment to implement this service will depend “largely” on its use, since a priori it is “difficult to quantify”. “It is important to provide an adequate service beyond its cost”stressed the spokesman, who has insisted that a “reinforcement” of care will be carried out.
The second measure is the fetal heartbeat protocol and cardiac recordsomething “optional and complementary” with the three mandatory ultrasounds that are currently carried out and that would be carried out between weeks six and nine of pregnancyin order to allow “before any decision” to “hear the heartbeat of your child.”
Making a “much more conscious” decision is the end of another “complementary” technique to the three conventional ultrasounds such as 4D ultrasound so that the parents can see the video “in real time” with “the head, hands, feet or fingers of the pregnant child”.
The vice president of the Board has defended that the monitoring of heart rate, number of beats per minute, is a way to assess fetal well-being, both in pregnancy and childbirth, its registration being necessary in all prenatal ultrasound studies that are carried out. In this sense, he recalled that the Doppler technique is common in daily clinical practice“of very simple execution and available in all ultrasound machines”.
In this sense, it has influenced that heart rate monitoring “allows monitoring of fetal problems such as growth retardation or alterations in the amount of amniotic fluid”, as well as maternal risk factors in high-risk pregnancies, such as “hypertension or diabetes” during pregnancy, to which is added the importance of being born ” more children”, something “essential to survive.
As far as 4D ultrasound is concerned, it is a complementary and non-substitutive ultrasound technique of the standardized ultrasound studies of pregnancy monitoring, which “can provide advantages for the ultrasound evaluation of professionals”, since “it allows a better visualization of the fetus, as well as a better evaluation of the heart, allowing a earlier detection of congenital heart disease“.
“No blacklists” of objectors will be established
Facing the “fundamental right to conscientious objection of professionals”, Castilla y León will ensure, as its vice president has stressed, that it is respected and send the “clear message” that “no black lists” of objectors will be establishedfollowing accusing the Government of Spain of trying to implement them with some of its announced measures.
Juan García-Gallardo has stressed that it is regarding “continuing with the current situation” in this matterwith respect for the current data protection regulations and the law that contemplates the objection of professionals, following warning that the latest reforms at the national level “went in the opposite direction”.
These measures, as the vice-president has underlined, seek to ensure that “all women who want to continue with their pregnancy” can count on “the full support of the Board” and thus try to prevent the interruption of pregnancies, which in 2021 they increased by more than 7 percent in the regionas he has stated, compared to 2020, a year marked by the confinement measures and limitation of mobility derived from the pandemic.
García-Gallardo has highlighted that 70 of these abortions were performed on mothers who had previously interrupted their pregnancy “up to three times”, following which he has ruled that if these measures “are useful so that a single affected child is not aborted” , will offset any “negative” counterpart of “being in a Government.”
In any case, the Board has stressed that health professionals provide “appropriate medical treatment and care” to women who need it before and following undergoing a pregnancy termination intervention.
Regarding the entry into force of these measures, García-Gallardo has assured that will be launched “immediately” in “the short term”following noting that the fetal heartbeat technique can be applied “in all hospitals in the Community and 4D ultrasound “in most” of them.
The information published in Redacción Médica contains affirmations, data and statements from official institutions and health professionals. However, if you have any questions related to your health, consult your corresponding health specialist.
