Mariia Shvab

Over 50 000 babies have been born in Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. With over 500 hospitals damaged or entirely destroyed, cities and towns under missile attacks or at risk of bombing, and Ukrainians fleeing abroad, childbirth nowadays is a much more complicated experience than before, and the variety of personal stories is much wider. Many women give birth in extreme settings, at home or in bomb shelters, unattended or under limited professional supervision, displaced to Ukrainian regions or abroad, alone. Together with a team, I plan to collect interviews and written narratives of Ukrainian women who have given birth since February 24, 2022, regardless of their circumstances: those who stayed in their home towns or moved within or outside Ukraine, those who have or have not lived under occupation, those who have given birth in healthcare facilities or elsewhere. We aim to portray the variety of childbirth experiences as they are experienced during the war from the perspective of women and their those close to them. In our study, we want to find answers to the question of what it means to give birth during the war.