ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — When Marharyta Nekhoroshyva first saw her newborn son, she was gripped by fear.
Born after just 26 weeks of pregnancy, he weighed only 940 grams (2 pounds) and wore diapers no larger than the palm of an adult hand.
“The doctors told me that if he survived the first three days, everything would be OK,” she said, tears filling her eyes.
“I don’t believe in God, but I was praying.” Now 9 months old, Mark is energetic and lively, but he has chronic breathing problems and requires frequent hospital stays.
Nekhoroshyva must navigate her son’s illness while living under the constant threat of attack in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, where hospitals board up their windows because blast waves from Russian strikes routinely shatter glass.
She is doing it alone while her husband fights in the war.
A rising number of babies are being born prematurely — before 37 weeks of pregnancy — in Ukraine, particularly in regions near the front lines, where some areas have seen rates nearly double since the conflict started with Russia’s invasion in 2022.
Experts say the reasons for premature births are complex, but the profound psychological and physical stress the war is inflicting on pregnant mothers is contributing.
The delicate work of keeping the fragile newborns alive is made only more difficult by the conflict.
When their babies are at the main children’s hospital in Zaporizhzhia, Nekhoroshyva and other mothers descend with their children into the shelter each night.
In the narrow, dimly lit hallways, they rock and soothe their infants to sleep.
Ukraine is seeing a rise in premature births While fewer women in Ukraine are giving birth overall due to displacement, emigration and other factors during the war, a growing share of births are premature, according to data from the United Nations and recent scientific studies.
In the southern region of Kherson, the preterm birth rate nearly doubled from 5.4% in 2019 to 9.8% in 2025, according to the U.N.
In the Zaporizhzhia region, also in the south, it rose from 5.7% in 2019 to 7.6% in 2025.
In Poltava, a region in northeastern Ukraine, the rate rose from 7.7% to 9.8% over the same period.
The front line cuts through both the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which frequently see attacks on residential areas.
Poltava is some distance away from the front but is frequently hit by aerial strikes.
The link between maternal stress and premature birth is complex, but a growing body of research suggests that prolonged psychological strain increases the risk of babies being born early, experts say.
It may be tied to an increased risk of infection, a known trigger for preterm labor, said Dr.
Andrew Weeks, a professor of international maternal healthcare at the University of Liverpool.
“Premature birth is very affected by infection,” he said.
“And if you can’t get to a place where you can get appropriate diagnosis and treatment early, then actually the chance of you going into premature labor is higher.” It’s not just premature births that are rising in Ukraine; emergency cesarean sections and other complications are, too, said Isaac Hurskin, spokesperson for the U.N.
Population Fund.
“We’re seeing this real link between acute stress and birthing and pregnancy-related complications,” he said.
Those complications could compound a demographic crisis.
Ukraine’s fertility rate has fallen to among the lowest in the world, dropping to roughly one child per woman over the past three years — far below the 2.1 replacement....
