The holiday begins early in the morning with solemn rituals in all maternity ‎departments of hospitals and clinics in the country. ‎

‎"Happiness in the profession - it is like the salty and sweet, one chooses which ‎one to try, because moments of happiness and difficulties alternate, but we pay ‎attention to the happy moments and that's how they multiply", says midwife ‎Nadezhda Stamenova from the Sofia-bsed Nadezhda Hospital on the air of ‎BNR-Radio Sofia. 

Her colleagues define her as an extremely dedicated ‎specialist who seeks a modern approach to help expectant mothers and ‎newborns. She herself says that her profession is unique: "Not the medical care ‎itself, but the fact that you are there and touch the new life, the beginning of ‎people's happiness - that makes it different from all the others."‎

Often in her hospital she encounters Bulgarians living literally on the other side ‎of the globe, but returning to give birth to their child at home, in Bulgaria. ‎‎"This is a great recognition for us," adds Nadezhda Stamenova, "because no ‎matter how pessimistic we are, in Bulgaria the care for Bulgarian women, ‎pregnant women, and babies is at a good level in most maternity wards in the ‎country."‎

January 21 is also a holiday in the hectic everyday life of Dr. Emil Abadzhiev, ‎head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the General Hospital ‎in Targovishte. Having devoted more than 30 years to the profession, Dr. ‎Abadzhiev says that the most amazing thing about his work is seeing how a ‎woman perceives the fact that she has become a mother. "The way in which a ‎woman addresses her baby is endearing and this is the moment that brings tears ‎to our eyes," says the doctor in an interview with BNR Shumen:‎

‎"My parents are doctors - my father is an obstetrician-gynecologist, my mother ‎led the neonatology department for a long time, and then the pediatric ‎department in our hospital. Come to think of it, I don't know any other life ‎than among people of this profession. My parents are still happy that I am a ‎doctor. They never in any case directed me specifically to the hereditary ‎medical profession, perhaps because they were aware of the difficulties I had to ‎go through. They always stimulated me to read, to develop, to be critical of ‎what I see and what I read, they helped me a lot. For my son, as a father, I want ‎him to find ‎his place in life and be happy with what he chooses to do.”‎

Dr. Emil Abadzhev modestly defines himself as a person about whom there is ‎nothing else to say, except that he devotes little time to his family and much ‎more to his work. His longest absences from work are for one weekend, when ‎they travel to some town in Bulgaria to see something new from the beauty of ‎our homeland. He is happy to have a wife who supports him and takes care of ‎the family:‎

"Women are truly the guardians of the family. They are the people who ‎organize it, form it and manage to make others around them feel comfortable. I ‎am lucky to have such a wife. And about where I get my energy from - I have ‎always thought that there are things that need to be done and petty whining like ‎‎- how tired I am now, in the medical profession there is no such thing. With ‎us, sometimes it's about precious minutes and you can't afford to be tired. In ‎order to be able to help people who come to you not out of pleasure, but out ‎of necessity, you must be adequate to the situation. You have to be smiling ‎enough, cheerful, quite brave, sometimes a little more conservative, but you ‎have to be able to help. I have had the opportunity many times to move from ‎the hospital in my city of Targovishte to a more prestigious place, but I don't ‎think that would be more useful for me, and I know that I have a debt to the ‎place where I grew up. And if I can help the people here with anything, it is ‎with my profession, what I do best."‎

Photos: BGNES, Radio Sofia, private archive

Written by Gergana Mancheva (based on interviews aired on BNR-Radio Sofia and BNR-Radio Shumen)

Editing by Elena Karkalanova