Maternity ward protects newborns in the midst of Ukraine's battle
Reuters
2014-08-19
Views 45
The babies are blissfully unaware...but the basement of this maternity hospital, in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, is now a bomb shelter for the newborns.
The hospital's converted the conference room to make space for incubators.
Twice last week, staff, mothers and babies went into the cellar to escape the shelling on this embattled city.
The nurses say the sounds of the shelling make the infants anxious.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) UNIDENTIFIED MEDICAL WORKER SAYING:
"We keep children in incubators now and therefore we are trying to do our best to ensure the bombing does not have an effect on the children. But you have to understand that we cannot guess the effect of each bombing on children, they are varied..." STOPS TALKING AS SIREN BLARES
More than 60 babies were born here in an average week at this time last year, before the fighting between rebels and government forces began.
But only a handful of mothers gave birth last week.
Lik
The hospital's converted the conference room to make space for incubators.
Twice last week, staff, mothers and babies went into the cellar to escape the shelling on this embattled city.
The nurses say the sounds of the shelling make the infants anxious.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) UNIDENTIFIED MEDICAL WORKER SAYING:
"We keep children in incubators now and therefore we are trying to do our best to ensure the bombing does not have an effect on the children. But you have to understand that we cannot guess the effect of each bombing on children, they are varied..." STOPS TALKING AS SIREN BLARES
More than 60 babies were born here in an average week at this time last year, before the fighting between rebels and government forces began.
But only a handful of mothers gave birth last week.
Lik
Report form
RELATED VIDEOS
