Polish Baby Boom - Strains Hospitals

The government is campaigning to encourage families to have more children, but as children born in a 1980s boom reach fertility, they are straining a system which constitutionally must provide free services to all Poles.

Healthcare has been slow to reform since the end of communism in 1989, and the hospitals' grim state is adding to the difficulties of giving birth.

Since 2004, more people have been born than died each year in this predominantly Catholic nation, although emigration by Poles seeking work means the population of around 38 million is still shrinking.

Worried at the falling numbers, the government has led a campaign to persuade Polish women to have more babies to "save the nation from disappearing", as some politicians have said.

But Poland's economic boom of late has not led to major improvements in the state's healthcare system and it is poorly placed to deal with a big increase in demand on any front.