Russia has bombed several hospitals during the war. The other week, a newborn died in the bombing of the delivery ward.
15:46•Updated 16:07
Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine has continued for more than nine months. It means that in the last few weeks, the first so-called war babies of Ukraine have been born.
War babies are babies whose mothers got pregnant during the war or just before it started.
One of them was born a week ago in western Lviv Sophia. His mother Inna says the Dutch public broadcasting company For Nos (you switch to another service) that he is above all grateful that everything went well in the end.
– We were really looking forward to the baby, but it was scary. I didn’t find out about the pregnancy until two months after the start of the war. I didn’t know if I should flee the country or not. Hospitals had already been bombed. How could I give birth in a bomb shelter?
In the end, Inna fled from Odessa to Lviv, where bombings have been less frequent. The child’s father Dmytro has been at the front for a large part of the war, but was released to attend the birth of his first child.
Nos has not released the family members’ last names.
Hundreds of hospitals bombed
Russia has bombed numerous hospitals in Ukraine during the war. The World Health Organization WHO has already certified more than 700 attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities and vehicles, says the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC (switch to another service).
Most recently, yesterday Saturday, Russia made an attack on the maternity ward of the hospital in Kherson, says the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on Twitter. No one was injured in the attack.
At the end of November, the Ukrainian authorities said that Russia had launched a rocket attack on the hospital’s maternity ward in the Zaporizhzhia region. The newborn child died, his mother was rescued from the rubble.
At the beginning of the war in March, the maternity and children’s hospital in Mariupol, which was the target of airstrikes, received a lot of attention, where three people died.
New mother Inna tells Nos that, in addition to the bombings, she was troubled by fear for the safety of Dmytro, who is at the front, the whole time she was waiting.
– My whole pregnancy was a very stressful time. During the first three months, my husband was not allowed home from the front. I felt very insecure, says Inna.
A doctor from Lviv Valentyn Usyk tells Nos that stress was at a very high level for the Ukrainians, especially in the first months of the war.
– Stress does not directly affect the baby, but if the mother is stressed, it can affect the pregnancy and thus the baby. Adrenaline is the biggest cause of stress, says Usyk.
Sofia’s father returns to the front
The parents of baby Sofia, who was born in Lviv, say that they are happy and relieved about the birth of their child, but they fear for her future.
New father Dmytro has to return to the front already next week.
– This is very difficult. I don’t know if I will return home alive, says Dmytro.
However, Sofia’s birth has changed everything.
– He is my reason for coming back alive.