GIVING BIRTH AMID THE BLASTS

Bringing a child into an uncertain world is daunting for any parent, but for women in war-torn Ukraine it's all-consuming. Here, two new mothers and one mum-to-be share their stories of giving birth as chaos reigns

VLADISLAVA is a video editor from Bucha who escaped to the safer region of Transcarpathia. She's eight months pregnant with her first child.

I was told about the war from a colleague who called me in the morning. We work in the media, so the first thing I did was ask my husband to pack up, and then I went to work thinking we wouldn't need to leave straight away. I thought we were only on the verge of a clash in [the disputed] Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The news of war was totally unexpected because I couldn't believe this is possible in the 21st century.

I live in Bucha, a beautiful town on the outskirts of Kyiv, where constant shelling had been going on since the first day because there are military facilities in and around the city. Despite the bombing, we stayed for a few days because we didn't know which roads were safe and whether there would be enough fuel for our journey out of there. We were also afraid of being under fire, which we constantly heard outside the window. When I heard from a friend about the evacuation train for women and children from the neighbouring city of Irpin, my husband and I decided it was the best opportunity for our family. I went with my mother and younger brother; I was seven months' pregnant at the time.

At the Irpin railway station we almost came under fire, so we were evacuated and forced to take an alternate route by crossing the river on foot over the bombed bridge.