ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes empirical findings on childbearing women’s agency, their demands, expectations and attitudes toward maternity care, including their discontent with its quality. Young Russian women have become more assertive and claim their rights to more consumer-oriented services and humanistic approaches. This shift proceeds under the influence of neoliberal ideology, which combines neo-traditionalist ideas about motherhood with consumer-oriented individualism. Women want to avoid the Soviet-type emotional style of khamstvo (rudeness) and look for “good care.” They try to make the “right choice” of providers, create trust relationships and receive personalized care. However, hospitals’ conditions and the behavior of maternity care providers are often far from meeting women’s expectations. When women face unexpected complications or do not receive the expected “good care” and emotional support, they feel themselves as suffering victims. They consider providers as not acting in their interests, as they routinely both observe and experience unreasonable clinical practices and poor coordination, which they evaluate as potentially harmful to them or their newborns. Women also lack the feeling of comfort and still face inappropriate communication and the emotional style of rudeness. All these prerequisites often become the basis for their discontent and their increasing numbers of complaints to different State bodies and media.
