"I always pray to God that the baby will be born healthy", says a 25-year-old woman who is expecting her fifth child. She rarely has the opportunity to hear the baby's beats, and she spends the nine months of her pregnancy with anxiety and uncertainty.

This is Afërdita, who says that it is difficult to provide money for transport, and even less for a medical check-up, to remove the worry about the condition of the baby she is carrying in her womb.

"Everyone wants to feel the baby and it's good, because there are many children who are born sick, I often hear. That there are cases where sick children are born and I am because of that tutem. But I pray to God that this one will be born well like the others", Aphrodite confesses.

The mother of three daughters and one son, who belongs to the Roma community, barely manages to provide food for the children. For check-ups at the Gynecology Clinic, she sometimes borrows money from neighbors for a bus ticket. But, in most cases, it does not check at all.

"Yes, they are quite early, we are being forced to go to Pristina. I have never had the opportunity to go to a gynecologist before, only in the state. We don't have good conditions. The man collects cans with a bicycle", she further confesses.

Medical check-ups at public health institutions are free, but not all required tests can be done there.

Venus also lives in the same neighborhood as Aphrodite. Whenever she doesn't hear the baby's heartbeat, she says she can't sleep because of worry.

"When the baby doesn't move, I say to myself, 'I don't know what happened inside.' A lot of cases are happening to you, or you're dying in your stomach or something," confesses an annoyed Venera.

A dose of hope for their journey to the east is found in a center that helps people in need.

While the hands of the clock are approaching the 14th, preparations are being made in the "Class for Mothers" of the organization "The Ideas Partnership".

Every Thursday, Aphrodita, Venus, but also other women of the communities come together in the counseling hour.

We have the "class for mothers" every Thursday from 14:00 p.m., mainly counseling hours. The blood pressure, the baby's heart rate are measured, mainly in an advisory way, what therapy I use, how contraceptives are used, family planning, mainly in an advisory way", says Mirnie Gojnovci, who is a midwife.

Minushja, as she is known in the circle, has been meeting with women whom she advises on reproductive health since 2017.

"The moral support of a woman is very necessary. When they are pregnant one by one, or when the pregnancy is at an early age, when they are young, they should be counseled and talk to them, talk to them and talk to them longer. Any change in their body, so they don't know what's happening to them." she explains.

Aphrodite, who is expecting her fifth child, shows that she does not enjoy good health. Rarely, she can perform medical checks.

"I had set the dates, but I didn't have the opportunity to go every time", she points out.

Venera lives similarly, which shows that the mother-in-law and her husband go to Pristina to ask for alms.

Years ago, there was a large number of home births, says Arjeta Ismajli, who is the coordinator of the "The Ideas Partnership" center based in Fushë Kosovë.

"Even in this century, even in those years since the center was opened, in 2011 there were births at home. It is not that they have taken into account the negative consequences that a home birth can have on the mother and the child. And we thought as a team, as a staff that we have to do something to change this", says Arjeta, who emphasizes that since that time they have started holding counseling sessions.

The situation has changed slightly, but she emphasizes that the women of the communities continue not to have regular check-ups with health professionals.

"For many years now, there has been no state gynecologist in the Main Center of Family Medicine in Fushë Kosova. Even to go to a private gynecologist, it costs 20-30 euros. A woman from the beginning of pregnancy, I don't know if she does any checks in private due to economic conditions". she points out.

Continuous checks during the nine months of pregnancy, but not only, gynecologist Jakup Ismajli says that they are necessary.

"Any woman who wants to have a normal pregnancy, a normal life, should have regular check-ups. Starting from routine tests, gynecological examinations, they are necessary, they are necessary and must be done if you want a healthy sexual life, a normal healthy life", declares Ismajli.

Shpresa Agushi, who leads the Community Women's Network, says that poor economic conditions are a factor for community women to avoid health visits.

"Rules, laws, procedures that change from time to time make the number of the population that does not have accurate information about what opportunities they have, how much they are free, but this is all caused by the issue of economic conditions, to increase even further. Since Kosovo still does not have health insurance for the population. The population itself, in this case the communities that are faced with difficult economic conditions, avoid health visits and this causes them to have even less knowledge even in those services that are also free of charge", says Agushi.

Even in the National Research on Anti-Gypsyism in Kosovo - carried out in 2022 by the "Terres des Hommes" organization - it is said that one of the manifestations of discrimination against Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian citizens is lack of access to health care.

"Community involvement is very little. I can say that gynecological visits are very few. Maybe there are changes from previous years, today's young women are visited more often, but still it is not a regular routine check-up for women to go regularly for visits", adds Agushi.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Gowing, who is an advisor to the Prime Minister for Community Affairs, says that the government is committed to the health of women in the communities.

"The Inter-agency Working Group on Reporting and Prevention of Early Marriages in the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Communities that was created by the government 10 months ago and that I chair is another example of the government's commitment to the health of the women of these communities. We know from UNICEF statistics together with KAS that 31% of young women from these communities "marry" under the age of 18. This means hundreds of girls every year whose health is at risk, and we see that the work of our group - as well as the activities planned in the ambitious action plan - are influencing the fight against this phenomenon", Gowing declares.

During this year, about six thousand births were performed at the Gynecology Clinic. However, this clinic has not shared statistics on births according to ethnicity.Sh. Pajaziti

*Venus and Venus are names changed to protect identity.

This article is funded by the European Union and the regional project "SMART Balkans – Civil society for the common society in the Western Balkans" implemented by Centar za promeno členi društva (CPCD), Center for Research and Policymaking (CRPM) and Institute for Democracy and Mediation ( IDM) and is financially supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA).

The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the project implementers and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA), the Center for the Promotion of Civil Society (CPCD), the Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM) or the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM).