Our Emily was born in Mariupol maternity hospital. When we were discharged, russian air bomb hit It
Everyone Ran to the Basement while I Stayed on the Operating Table, Alone
I was born in Volnovakha, got married, and moved to my husband’s hometown of Mariupol. The wedding was celebrated in 2021. I am 21 years old, my husband Kyrylo is 26. We lived with our relatives in a private house in Illyichivsk district, this is Pentagon — the locals will understand. There was a basement in which, starting from the end of February, we had to stay very often.
March 8th was my tentative due date. On the evening of March 5, Kyrylo’s mother agreed with a Ukrainian military to take us to the maternity hospital. I refused because I had no signs. But my husband said we must go for no one knew what would happen next. As a result, the military men took us to their unit, but there were no obstetricians there. They said that the maternity ward of the City Hospital No. 3 was open. It is in the center of Mariupol. Actually, I planned to give birth in the first maternity hospital, but it was no longer functioning by that time. Like the others.
We got to the hospital on foot. We’d never been there, so we couldn’t find the right building for a long time. While we were looking for the maternity hospital, shelling began nearby.
Nadija and Kyrylo in civilian life
I was assigned to a room on the second floor. At 2 a.m. contractions started. I told the doctor about this and he told me to lie down on the operating table. I lay down, and they put a catheter in my arm. At 4 a.m., heavy shelling of the hospital started, even sparks could be seen from the window. All pregnant women and women with children that were in the wards, as well as the staff, ran to the shelter. I stayed on the table. Kyrylo covered me with himself. We prayed. We were so scared at that moment. And when the shelling intensified, Kyrylo took me in his arms and ran to the basement.
In addition to 30 women who had already given birth and 20 expectant mothers, there were residents of nearby apartment blocks in the basement. At that time, the contractions intensified, got painful, but the shelling didn’t stop.
It was March 6 and 6 a.m. on the clock, the womb started to open, it was already almost 10 cm. At that moment the shelling stopped. I gave birth in the operating room. There was a doctor and nurses. They helped and supported me. At 8:50 I gave birth to a girl, we named her Emily. Height 3600 g, weight 51 cm.
In the maternity hospital, food was given to those who were to give birth and to those who had already given birth. They could give two dumplings or a plate of broth. And this was for the whole day. I shared those tiny bits of food with my husband, who was always there supporting me. Only for a while, during the periods of calm, he would leave. He came back with toys for kids to please them. After all, there were not only newborns in the hospital.
Daughter born in Mariupol
Potatoes with Gasoline for a Trip
The doctor said that I would be discharged the next day, because the hospital lacked places. I told my husband about this and Kyrylo immediately started to look for a car. My husband offered two potato bags and gasoline to people having cars. But he was refused, they didn’t agree, they said our house at Pentagon had been already destroyed, and so there was no point in going. We didn’t find a car, so we asked the doctors to allow us to stay for another night.
On March 8, we did manage to leave. Thank God, that day our friend came to the maternity hospital with an armful of tulips for women. When Roma came up to me and congratulated me on the birth of my daughter, I asked him to take us home. He agreed. How happy we were when we saw that our house was intact.
On the next day, March 9, the Russian army dropped an air bomb on the maternity hospital.
Maternity hospital after the airstrike
Went to Help Those in Need and Died
At home, we had bags with everything needed packed. But we still didn’t plan to leave. We hoped that soon everything would be over, our house would withstand, and our lives would be saved. On March 11, a tragedy happened in our family. Yaroslav and Andriy, Kyrylo’s brothers, rode bicycles to help those in need. They delivered food to people — bread, pasta, and so on.
Near the maternity hospital No. 1, Yaroslav told his brother to wait, and he himself went forward. But he didn’t manage to get far because a heavy shelling started. A shell hit the house near which Yaroslav was standing at that moment. Shrapnel severely cut his arm and leg. A piece of shrapnel also hit him in the stomach. Andriy arrived by then and saw Yaroslav bleeding. At that time, a military car was passing by and there was a nurse. Yaroslav was put on a stretcher and taken to the hospital. He was put on a drip. But he died from severe wounds and a large loss of blood. He was buried in the courtyard of our house.
Family in Poland - Nadija with Kyrylo in the middle with two-months-old Emily
At the end of March, nearby shelling became more frequent. My daughter was constantly shuddering from shooting and explosions, crying hard and for a long time. She got very skittish. And then a shell hit our three-story house, where we lived as a large and friendly family. The roof was broken and all the windows were without glass. We decided to leave. Fortunately, the cars were intact. First, three cars left, and on the next day, two more followed. We went through Donetsk, Shakhtarsk, then Taganrog, Rostov, Pskov, as well as cities in Estonia and Latvia. Now our large family — me with Kyrylo and Emily, mother-in-law with father-in-law, and seven husband’s brothers with their wives and children — live in Poland.
Nadija Angelovska raises funds to help her family. Support them.
