Romance with love. Story of Tetyana & Roman
March 14th. Stoyanka, Ukraine
"I gave birth during terrible sirens of the air raid warning. In the city that was mine. Because it constantly bombed each day. In the maternity hospital, I did not plan to because it is partially shielded. In the city which is daily bombed".
The city of Pushcha-Vodytsya is a famous climate resort in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Normally citizens come here to do cycling, forest picnics, hunt some mushrooms, and take a cafe tram tour through the forest.
These days, maternity hospital Leleka is under the constant shields of russian troops. Tetyana planned to give birth to her baby here. The maternity hospital was built in 2014 and is very easy to find - a colorful building with a pacifier sculpture in the front yard. The windows of the hospital rooms are covered with webs of cracks from the bullets. Evacuation and fire equipment can be easily found in the corridors.
"Newborns scream are louder than explosions outside", says obstetrician after 24 hours in the row here.
The hospital was cut off of communication and has stopped operating on March 6th. Doctors continue to help remotely and from hospitals still on the run. All private maternity hospitals in Kyiv were accepting women and wounded for free.
"I was delivering; the labor pain was hellish. The siren has started to shout. The doctor has entered the room and asked me do I plan to go to the basement (basements in the hospitals are used as bomb shelters). How can I go? I'm shaking because of labor pain. I feel sick. I can't exhale, only inhale. My eyes are closed, legs give away. My body is a total pain. How can I walk from the second floor to the basement? And back. I've signed a refusal. This means I stay in the hospital room despite the sirens. Sirens have started to calm me in contrast to the waves of pain I've experienced inside. I did care if the shell would reach the hospital, just wish the labor pain gone for next round".
The basements of the maternity hospital located in the war zones are turned into emergency rooms for newborns and their moms. C-sections, resuscitation, newborn care - all are needed to save lives is here. Grey walls are first seen by little angels who came to this world.
"Next time, everyone went to the basement because of sirens. I was running out of pain relief. And I got into my personal hell. I listened to the sirens and drew in sickness, tremble, and peals of pain and counted. I just counted numbers. It seemed like an eternity to wait for the air raid warning to stop, and nurse will return and give me pain relief."
The nurseries and doctors have returned. Tetyana's 3d son was born on March 14th. While staging at the hospital room, she constantly evaluated the thickness of the walls and chances to survive if shell will hit the place. In a couple of days, the world would know the story of the woman Olga who has covered her 1-month-old baby daughter with her body.
by Anastasiia Lapatina, twitter
She will become one of the contemporary Ukrainian Madonnas. The body covered with wounds from shell fragments will continue to breastfeed a baby, both safe in the hospital room dressed in a golden thermal blanket.
Art by @anta_arf
Death and life are always handed by hand during such moments.
"The son was called Roman. Because the whole story of this boy like a romance with life". In Ukrainians, Roman for name spells the same as romance.
Message to my son
The world already loves him and cares for him. I can feel it in the air.
He is born to live in a renewed world be a part of the next chapter of history. I wish there would be the freedom of choice and possibilities, helps and human beings, good ones who may love and support in his world.
