A landmark event took place in Almaty — the opening of the new Ecomed Clinic building, timed to coincide with the medical institution’s 30th anniversary, reports Vecher.kz.
The facade of the building features the “Ansagan Sabi” (“Long-Awaited Baby”) sculpture. The composition, depicting a mother’s hand holding a baby, was inspired by the program proposed by the Head of State to improve the reproductive health of the population.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev initiated the “Ansagan Sabi” project in 2020. Every year, 7,000 quotas for in vitro fertilization (IVF) are allocated under the program. In its first year of implementation alone, in 2021, more than 3,000 children were born in Kazakhstan thanks to the program.
The new clinic building is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and advanced medical technologies. In particular, it features EmbryoScope Plus incubators powered by artificial intelligence. These systems enable 24/7 monitoring of embryo development, helping to minimize the risk of errors and improve the chances of successful conception.
“We are proud to have introduced EmbryoScope Plus AI, an innovative system that is transforming the approach to IVF by making it more precise and personalized. It is also important to highlight the unique Japanese Piezo ICSI technology, which helps improve the chances of successful fertilization,” said Saltanat Baikoshkarova, founder and Scientific Director of the Ecomed Group of Clinics.
Her name is well known not only in Kazakhstan but also beyond its borders. It was Saltanat Baikoshkarova who founded the laboratory on April 18, 1995, where Kazakhstan’s first successful IVF procedure was performed. Since then, thousands of couples have experienced the joy of becoming parents.
“My dream is for there to be no couples left struggling with infertility in Kazakhstan, and for every home to be filled with children’s laughter. But the path toward this goal begins not only with technology, but also with genuine empathy for every patient.
The ‘Ansagan Sabi’ sculpture is intended to inspire hope in those who are still dreaming of becoming parents. Today, one in six couples in Kazakhstan faces infertility, and we continue to do everything possible to change these statistics,” said Saltanat Baikoshkarova at the opening ceremony.
The event was also attended by families who had welcomed a child through IVF. One particularly touching moment was the story of 23-year-old Diana Omarova, who was born at the Ecomed Clinic. She came to the opening with her father to personally thank Saltanat Baikoshkarova.
“My parents were unable to have a child for eight years. They went through many challenges but continued to believe in a miracle — and one day they came to Ecomed. That is how I was born. Every year on my birthday, my father would say, ‘Remember, my daughter, you are here thanks to your second mother, Saltanat Berdenovna.’ I always dreamed of meeting her and saying thank you. Today that day has finally come. We came here together. Thank you for the light you brought into our family,” she shared.
Diana Omarova’s story is just one of many. Over three decades, Ecomed has grown from a small laboratory with just three rooms into a flagship of reproductive medicine. Today, it is the country’s largest network of clinics, where approximately 20,000 children have been born.
Almaty residents actively participate in the in vitro fertilization (IVF) program, which is fully covered by the Compulsory Social Health Insurance (CSHI) system. In 2024 alone, 3,229 IVF procedures worth KZT 3.9 billionwere performed under the “Ansagan Sabi” program.