Ukraina: Føder i kjellere mens bombene faller

UKRAINA: Sykehuskjellere blir omgjort til fødestuer og barselrom. Kvinner føder mens sykehus blir angrepet. 80.000 kvinner kommer til å føde barn i Ukraina de neste månedene. – En ekstrem situasjon å føde i krig, sier Kristin Oudmayer.

On 7 March 2022 at Kyiv Regional Perinatal Centre in Ukraine, Yuliya (second from left, in pink bathrobe), 38, sits on a bed in the makeshift ward in the Centre's basement, days after giving birth. “We’re sitting here in the basement, we’ve been crying,” Yuliya says. “It’s terrifying to see smoke and shelling. We’re doing everything we can to save our children, our futures.” It took Yuliya two days on foot to travel here from her home outside Kyiv. With the conflict escalating, Yuliya had no choice but to try to find a safe place to deliver her child. She says there were times during the journey when she worried she might not make it here at all. “I had to travel across fields and through forests,” she says, adding that due to some other health issues, not every facility would have been able to help her deliver her child. “But thanks to God and the doctors, I now have a baby and I’m still alive.” Tearfully, she says, “I just want us all to stay alive ... I want peace.”In partnership with the Kyiv City Administration, UNICEF is providing urgent medical equipment, hygiene products and supplies to maternity hospitals and children’s hospitals all over Kyiv, including the Kyiv Regional Perinatal Centre. The basement of the centre has been turned into a makeshift maternity ward. Most of the women here only leave the basement when they need to – when they need to wash or get something to eat. Nataliya Heynts, the centre director, says the situation has been catastrophic for families. “It’s impossible to be prepared for this,” she says. “It’s extremely cold, dark, and there are no plugs down here.” Medical staff work under extreme pressure, delivering children amid constant shelling and often without a stable power supply. Some staff have already fled with their families. Others, including Nataliya, are taking on multiple jobs at once. “I work as a cook, a doctor and an operating surgeon,” says Nataliya. “It is our r
KJELLER: Yuliya ( i rosa badekåpe) i kjelleren på sykehuset Kyiv, dagen etter at hun fødte. Kjelleren har blitt barsel- og fødeavdeling. – Vi sitter her og gråter, forteller hun.
Une Bratberg journalist
Publisert Sist oppdatert

Yuliya (38) gikk til fots i to dager før hun kom fram til sykehuset i Kyiv. Der ble kjelleren omgjort til barselavdeling.

Så mange som 80.000 kvinner vil de neste tre månedene føde barn i Ukraina. Mange sykehus – og også fødeavdelinger – har blitt truffet av russisk artilleri.

Å føde i krig er farlig. I begynnelsen av mars var det rundt 5.000 gravide og nyfødte barn i Kyiv-området. Kvinner har måttet føde mens flyalarmen går, men også i sykehuskjellere og bomberom.

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