A Photojournalist Captures Stories of Birth, Motherhood and Survival in Eastern Ukraine

“Of course I get afraid. We don’t know how long the war will continue, but we need to bring new life, and continue life, in spite of it all,” Evginoya, 30, said while holding her one-day-old daughter, Sofia, at Kharkiv regional hospital, on October 7, 2024. Credit: Emily Garthwaite for More to Her Story

Photographer Emily Garthwaite traveled to the Eastern Ukrainian cities of Kherson and Kharkiv alongside the Legacy of War Foundation to photograph frontline medic teams and maternal healthcare patients.

In Kherson, she met mothers living in villages once occupied by Russian forces, awaiting their fate as the looming threats of another occupation hung over them. In the Kharkiv region, Garthwaite documented frontline medical workers in de-occupied villages and bunker-like medical clinics, and visited maternity wards to hear stories from new mothers who had decided to have children despite the war.

These are their photos and stories.

Natalia (pictured above) has worked as a midwife at Kharkiv Regional Hospital for more than 30 years. She has delivered thousands of babies. “When will we live? When the war ends? We must continue,” she told Garthwaite.

The Kharkiv central hospital runs mobile clinics for frontline communities in makeshift field hospitals, churches, libraries, and schools, with a specific focus on traumatology for women and gynecology. Igor, a gynecologist, (pictured second to right) also speaks to women about domestic violence and offers emotional support.

As the sound of bombs rumbled in the background, a mother and daughter embrace at a Kharkiv mobile clinic. This particular clinic provides care packages for women containing sanitary towels, women’s products, and age-relevant medical supplies.

Katarina, 35, pushes her son Leo, 2, through a residential area in Kharkiv on October 9, 2024. At the start of the war, Katerina used to work in a maternity hospital on the outskirts of Kharkiv. She is now a full-time mother. They planned to go to a nearby park to feed ducks at the lake, but eventually decided against it after hearing a missile struck the park, killing two people. “I don’t want to leave this life, this life in Ukraine. It’s not my plan,” Katarina said.

Halyna Derev'yanko, a mother of five, plays with her youngest child in their family home in the frontline village of Vysoke in the Kherson region on October 5, 2024. She gave birth to her son in 2024, when the village was once occupied by Russian troops. It has since been de-occupied. She is afraid to leave the village and has yet to find new accommodation.

Marina, 42, holds her four-month-old daughter, Anastasia, at Kharkiv Regional Hospital on October 7, 2024. “It’s strange, to wait for a child, the biggest gift in your life, during a war,” Marina said.

Alyona Karayeva, a radiographer, at Kharkiv Regional Hospital, has been forced to pause mammograms due to the increased need from trauma patients. “In the first months of the war we saw so many scary things. Then things began to feel calm, but I never forgot what I saw,” she said. “It’s incredibly heavy for me. Please photograph all the awful things, because they go through my eyes, and I need people to see them with their eyes. These live in my eyes.”