Kyiv, 1 October 2026 - Maternity care in Ukraine is being pushed deeper into crisis as pregnant women give birth through air raids, hospitals come under attack, and one in five health facilities providing antenatal care is unable to meet care standards, according to a new UNFPA analysis.

The warning follows strikes that hit a maternity hospital in central Kyiv on 24 September, where a baby boy was born in the hospital’s shelter during the attack. Another hospital in Kyiv was damaged on 28 September. Staff and equipment shortages are among the main reasons antenatal care cannot be provided to standard, according to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Health Resources and Services Availability Monitoring System [HeRAMS]. 

In 2025, caesarean sections accounted for 29.4 per cent of births nationally, compared to the global rate of 21 per cent, and 44.5 per cent in Kherson region, where doctors have reported increased complications in childbirth and the need to schedule births to limit the time women spend exposed to attack.

Since the beginning of 2026, 17 attacks have damaged UNFPA-supported facilities, services and supplies: maternity and perinatal facilities in Odesa, Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, city hospitals in Kherson hit by drones on a near-weekly basis, and mobile health teams. On 3 September, a strike on a warehouse near Kyiv destroyed UNFPA supplies that were set to go to hospitals and clinics, including medicines for pregnant women. WHO has verified 3,291 attacks on health care in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, as of 28 September 2026.

Ukraine recorded 162,511 births in 2025, the lowest number on record and 8 per cent fewer than the previous year [MoH data], a sign of how war, displacement and uncertainty are shaping the most personal decisions about whether and when to have children.

Further consequences of the ongoing war may be felt for years to come. Diagnoses of breast cancer fell in 2025 [MoH data] while nearly 30 per cent of facilities expected to offer mammography could not provide it fully, with the most severe gaps in frontline oblasts [HeRams]. Fewer women are being screened, and delays in diagnosis  can cost lives. The rise in stress-linked complications will also be felt beyond the delivery room: doctors in frontline areas report that chronic stress in pregnancy is linked to preterm birth, low birth weight and lasting effects on children's development.

"Births do not wait for a pause in air raids. Ukraine's midwives and doctors have supported the delivery of babies through air raids, blackouts and strikes on their own hospitals, and they are exhausted," said Jacqueline Mahon, UNFPA Representative in Ukraine. "Medicines and equipment we can replace. We cannot replace the people. There is a shortage of doctors, nurses and midwives, and the situation is worse in frontline regions. Health care workers and hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law."

UNFPA in Ukraine supports maternity and perinatal hospitals, mobile health teams and fortified underground maternity facilities in frontline regions, supplies essential medicines, equipment and contraceptives to health facilities nationwide, and works with the Ministry of Health to expand the midwifery workforce, which can safely provide the large majority of sexual and reproductive health care. Ahead of winter, UNFPA is equipping supported hospitals with backup power for blackouts and is working to preposition newborn kits so mothers can keep their babies warm through outages. UNFPA calls on donors to sustain funding for maternal health services in frontline regions ahead of winter.

Correction, 15 October 2026: An earlier version of this press release attributed the finding that one in five maternity care facilities in Ukraine are unable to meet care standards to UNFPA analysis of Ministry of Health data. The analysis drew on Ministry of Health data and on the WHO Health Resources and Services Availability Monitoring System (HeRAMS). The one in five figure is from the HeRAMS report of August 2026. 

Media contacts:
Kyiv: Isaac Hurskin, hurskin@unfpa.org