The thunder of explosions occasionally shakes the hideout that has become the temporary home for 21 babies born to Ukrainian surrogates to foreign parents.
The clinic at the BioTexCom Center for Human Reproduction in Kiev was moved to a bunker on the first day of the Russian invasion, nearly three weeks ago, to protect the babies from any attack.
However, it is still far from safe, as it is situated just over 15 kilometers from Irpin, a suburb that has been the target of intense Russian attacks, something that makes it even more difficult for new parents, who are in countries like Canada, Italy and China to pick up the babies.
On Monday morning, a 30-year-old surrogate arrived at the makeshift clinic with the baby she had given birth to in a hospital a week earlier. She couldn’t hold back tears when she handed baby Laurence to the staff.
“It’s even more difficult for him to be in a place where there are bombings,” said the woman who asked us to use only her first name, Victoria. “When will the parents be able to pick him up? Is very difficult”.
Victoria was transferred from the maternity hospital to the surrogacy clinic in an employee’s car. The employee walked at nearly 100 miles an hour into the city to try to lessen the chance of the car being hit by the missiles, she said. When Victoria entered the building, she said she heard the sound of Ukrainian anti-aircraft guns in the distance.
Inside the bunker, there were three louder explosions, one of which shot down a Russian missile less than a kilometer away. Surveillance footage posted on social media shows a man walking on a nearby street when the intercepted missile fell. No one is believed to have died in the explosion.
“They have been waiting for the baby for 20 years”
Baby Laurence’s biological parents, who gave both sperm and egg for the pregnancy, live in another country. It is not known when they will be able to pick up their son.
“They say they come,” Victoria said. “(But) it’s very difficult to deal with paperwork right now. How long it will take, nobody knows.”
Victoria added that she kept Laurence’s parents updated “until the last minute” before delivering the baby to the surrogacy clinic. “I hope we keep in touch, because (the situation is) very difficult.”
Many countries around the world have strict rules on surrogacy, and some couples struggling to have a baby naturally have turned to Ukraine in recent years, where surrogacy is not prohibited and clinics offer competitive prices on comparison with other countries.
Ihor Pechenoga, the doctor who helps run the surrogacy clinic, said the women are paid between $17,000 and $25,000 for the service.
Victoria wanted to put the money down for a down payment for her own family, money she had been trying to save since giving birth to her own daughter at 17. The daughter, now 13, left Ukraine for Bulgaria when the war broke out, she said.
But after having to stay in the hospital for most of Laurence’s pregnancy due to complications, and after facing what she describes as the trauma of giving up the baby she now feels attached to, Victoria has said she won’t do it again. it.
BioTexCom stopped the program because of the war, focusing on supporting women who are pregnant and getting newborns safely out of the country. While the clinic may try to move the babies to safer areas in western Ukraine, for legal reasons new parents have to pick up babies within the country, and some are afraid to cross the border.
“It all depends on the willpower of the parents,” said Pechenoga, 51. “I met with parents who came to Kiev to pick up their baby; they had tears in their eyes. They had been waiting for the baby for 20 years, so of course they came despite everything.”
But there are also “couples who are afraid, because there is a war here, and a serious war,” he said.
Six employees work at the clinic to feed and care for the 21 babies. They are all increasingly concerned about the unfolding conflict as bombs fall closer to the building. Babies can feel fear and worry, said one of them, Antonina Yefimovich, 37.
But they turned down the opportunity to leave Kiev because they don’t want to abandon the children.
“I would, because I also have my family. But we have no one to leave the babies with,” Yefimovich said.
Yefimovich’s mother, husband and two daughters have already fled the city and are now more than 190 kilometers away.
“Of course, I’m worried about them,” she said. “But I feel better because at least my mother and husband are there. They will take care of my daughters.”
These babies “cannot be abandoned,” she continued. “They are helpless. They also need care. And we really hope that the parents will pick them up soon.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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