With limited resources and extensive bombings, both patients and staff at a maternity ward in Pokrovsk are suffering from a lack of sleep.
We had ten attacks last night. Can you understand? says doctor Ivan Tsyhanok to the news agency AFP.
The bombings are getting closer to the city, which is two miles from the front line. Russia is trying to take over a major highway nearby. It leads to Kramatorsk, the largest city in the industrial region of Donetsk, which is under Ukrainian control. The fighting means that women in the area have to take long detours to the maternity ward to avoid roads that are often attacked, says Ivan Tsyhanok.
Stress over the war
A demographic crisis already existed before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine's birth rate was already among the lowest in the world and has decreased further in recent years, first during the coronavirus pandemic and now during the war.
The fact that fewer women are giving birth in Ukraine today can be partly explained by the fact that many couples have separated and many young women have left the country.
Moreover, many women are also giving birth prematurely during the war. According to Ivan Tsyhanok, the number of premature births has doubled in Donetsk since Russia launched its full-scale invasion nearly two years ago.
One reason for the increase in premature births may be stress. Many women have great anxiety about their children's fathers, who are often soldiers, and about their children's future.
The doctors stay
During the first six months of the year, the number of deaths, according to Ukrainian statistics, has been nearly three times higher than the number of births, writes The Kyiv Independent. During the first half of the year, over 87,000 children were born and over 250,000 people died. The figures are not complete due to the Russian occupation of parts of the country.
Two years ago, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged residents in the Donetsk region to flee, and in some areas near the front line, authorities have forced residents to relocate. But the doctors have decided to stay.
We understand the risks, but as long as there are patients here, we cannot stop our work, says Ivan Tsyhanok.
The number of newborns in Ukraine from January to June in recent years, according to the Ministry of Justice's data. The data is not complete from some parts of the country due to the ongoing Russian occupation.
2018: 164,287
2019: 149,549
2020: 139,134
2021: 132,595
2022: 106,430
2023: 96,755
2024: 87,655
Source: opendatabot.ua
