Doctors in war-torn Ukraine fight to save the lives of premature babies

Though it has faded from headlines, the war in Ukraine has continued, with innocent civilians suffering in the onslaught. Pregnant women and their children face an increased risk of premature labor, and heroic doctors and nurses have kept themselves in danger on the front lines to give them the best chance of surviving.

The Associated Press highlighted Pokrovsk Perinatal Hospital in Dontesk, a territory in Ukraine currently occupied by Russian military forces. Previously, there had been two other maternity hospitals serving premature babies, but one was hit by an airstrike, while the other closed due to the war. Dr. Tetiana Myroshnychenko is now the only remaining neonatologist in the region, and she lives in the hospital.

Myroshnychenko isn’t the only one who can’t leave; the premature infants she serves have to stay put as well. It’s too dangerous to disconnect them from their equipment to take them to the below-ground air raid shelter. “If I carry Veronika to the shelter, that would take five minutes,” Myroshnychenko said of an infant profiled by the Associated Press. “But for her, those five minutes could be critical.”

READ: War in Ukraine leaves mothers struggling to breastfeed their children

Veronika was born two months premature, weighing just 3 pounds, 4 ounces. She relies on supplemental oxygen to breathe, tubes to eat, and ultraviolet lamps to treat jaundice. Stress and poor living conditions from the ongoing war mean there are more premature births taking place, with more babies like Veronika needing Myroshnychenko’s help.

Inna Kyslychenko is one of them, with her daughter, Yesenia, just two days old. Kyslychenko wants to join the people evacuating, but can’t until they are able to leave the hospital. Outside the hospital, things like heat, water, and electricity are in short supply. “I fear for the little lives, not only for ours, but for all the children, for all of Ukraine,” she told the Associated Press.

Other new parents, Andrii and Maryna Dobrelia, welcomed a baby through a c-section. The other closest hospital to them was three and a half hours away, which is why chief physician Ivan Tsyganok said the hospital must stay where it is, on the front lines of the vicious war. “Delivering babies is not something that can be stopped or rescheduled,” he said. So doctors like Tsyganok and Myroshnychenko keep working tirelessly, even when the hospital is being hit by rocket fire.

“These children we are bringing into the world will be the future of Ukraine,” Tsyganok said. “I think their lives will be different to ours. They will live outside war.”

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