in Kharkiv, Ukrainian women suffer the effects of war during pregnancy

“It’s Demyd, he was less than a kilo when he was born.” In his incubator, the little boy breathes thanks to a tiny probe like him. The baby of Katya, a 21-year-old Ukrainian girl, was born at 7 months of pregnancy in the antenatal clinic in Kharkiv. “I was stressed because I have relatives who are at war on the front: my husband’s brother”confides the young mother.

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A year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian women are also suffering the effects of war during their pregnancy. If there are no precise figures as to the repercussions of the conflict on the birth rate at the national level, Ukrainian doctors are worried about the increased number of premature babies and the complications linked to the context. The fear of war, Irina, who keeps her seven-day-old baby boy close to her, experienced it in her flesh when she was three months pregnant: “Two missiles fell on my building. It was a very big shock and it affected my health.”

“It’s always very difficult in the country and in the city”

On the third floor of the Kharkiv antenatal clinic, nurses prepare medicine for women admitted to an intensive care unit. Calm reigns, unlike the 78 days spent at the beginning of the war, when it was necessary to move in disaster to the basement because of the bombardments which targeted a military hospital next door. “The conditions were much more complicated in the basementexplains Victoria, head of the unit. We organized the space, everything was sterilized, but there was stress.” Conditions have returned to near normal “for the service”explains Victoria but “in the country and in the city, it is always very difficult”.

“Today we were all woken up at 4 a.m. because there were explosions. We didn’t fall asleep and then we went to work because you have to work. You have to smile and you have to win.”

Victoria, head of the intensive care unit

at franceinfo

Irina Kondratova, the director of the prenatal center in Kharkiv, asks us a surprising question: “Do you know my history with David Beckham?” Irina scrolls through a video on her mobile where the former England soccer star says: “I put my social networks at the disposal of Irina, director of the Kharkiv Regional Perinatal Center. Your donations help newborns to survive in appalling conditions.”

Since then, the prenatal clinic in Kharkiv has been equipped with a brand new incubator purchased thanks to donations collected by the ex-footballer.