No need to stress

Maternity wards are overcrowded these days.

For the last few months it's been the same thing: Czech hospitals announcing that a record number of children have been born this year. Happy news about the baby boom is often followed by reports that local hospitals are dangerously overcrowded. Parents face the possibility that they won't be admitted at their district hospital – or their preferred hospital – and will need to go wherever there are free beds.

As a rule, in Prague it's necessary to register in your selected hospital six months in advance. As of this summer, the maternity ward in Pardubice is said to be full. The same situation is in Ústí nad Labem, where, according to the latest news, expecting mothers fill out a form, saying they agree to be transferred to a different hospital in case the one in Ústí is full.

The women at least have the option to tick off those hospitals where they don't want to go (This is important in the northern part of the country, where two hosptials – one in Most, the other in Teplice – have acquired a poor reputation due to several unexplained deaths in the last few years.) Getting into a hospital that has a good reputation is not easy these days, and it adds to the stress surrounding childbirth. Women will now worry about whether the hospital to which they're being taken while going into labour has space.

It was to be expected. The birth rate…