Early years
The early childhood years, the period from pregnancy until the transition to school is complete, are very formative years. A protective family environment should provide the young child with sufficient love and care to be able to develop both physically, emotionally and cognitively into a unique individual, with self-esteem and confidence. However, both the family situation and the care practices among vulnerable families and communities in Romania are extremely weak, thus limiting the protective environment. The continued high rate of child abandonment and institutionalisation points to the lack of preventive services. Social services providing monitoring, assistance and support to pregnant women at risk of abandoning their children have only recently been developed (23 as of end 2004). The number of mother and baby centres has increased slowly but steadily in recent years (57 in 2004). However, this number is far from sufficient and these are located only in cities. The number of day centres for vulnerable children has increased rapidly (125 centres in 2004), all in urban areas. The previous network of crèches and kindergartens, which could be used to provide similar services, has declined in numbers, and these crèches are too costly for parents in greatest need. The 2005 abandonment study found that more than 60% of mothers having abandoned their children had never had any pre-natal medical examination. The study also found that most maternity wards did not have rooming-in facilities, sometimes which actually encourages the separation of the mother and child. The environment in a maternity hospital is important when attempting to prevent child abandonment and subsequent institutionalisation.
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