On October 14, Olena’s life changed completely. The day before, she had been a soldier serving her country along Ukraine’s frontline. Now, she was also a mother.
As she rocked her newborn, a daughter she’d named Sofiia, Olena, who asked that we only use her first name, described the emergency cesarean section she had the night before, after she developed preeclampsia. She’d been brought to the maternity ward at Hospital No. 25 in Kharkiv, Albuquerque’s newest Sister City. After a successful delivery, she named her daughter Sofiia because she liked the sound of the name combined with her daughter’s patronymic, a traditional middle name based on her father’s first name: Sofiia Mykhailivna.
Olena is one of a shrinking number of women giving birth in Kharkiv as the war in Ukraine wears on. In 2024, Ukraine recorded the lowest birth rate in the world as families navigated the risks of being pregnant and raising children four years into an ongoing conflict. At Kharkiv Hospital No. 25, a dedicated corps of local doctors, nurses and paramedics keep childbirth as safe as possible – despite the ongoing threat of shelling…