Ukrainian nurses care for surrogacy babies underground
A makeshift bomb shelter in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv has become a temporary home for babies born to surrogate mothers whose new parents can’t enter the country to take them home.
At least 20 babies - including some that are just a few days old - have been taken underground where they are well cared for by the many nurses from the surrogacy centre also stranded in the shelter, as reported by 7News.
With Ukrainian troops fighting off Russian forces in Kyiv’s suburbs, it has become too dangerous for the nurses to travel between the shelter and their homes.
“Now we are staying here to preserve our and the babies’ lives,” said Lyudmilia Yaschenko, a 51-year-old nurse.
“We are hiding here from the bombing and this horrible misery.”
At least 20 surrogacy babies are being cared for in an underground bunker as the war rages on above them. Image: Getty Images
Ms Yaschenko said they could leave the shelter for brief periods to get some fresh air, but that they worked constantly to look after the children.
“We are almost not sleeping at all,” she said. “We are working around the clock.”
She also worried for her two sons - aged 22 and 30 - who were fighting to defend the country.
Ukraine is one of the few countries that allows foreigners to use surrogate services, with most of the 2000 children born through surrogacy every year are matched to foreign couples from Europe, Latin America and China.
Though Ms Yaschenko wouldn’t say how many children are still waiting to be united with their parents or how many surrogate mothers are expected to deliver soon, the nurses have plenty of food and baby supplies to continue caring for them as they wait for the war to end.
Image: Getty Images