‘Non-essential’ shops and restaurants have been open for weeks in Armenia and Ukraine. Both countries eased their coronavirus lockdowns in May. But pregnant women continue to face restrictions, and have suffered other mistreatment, in contravention of World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.
“I was crying all the time, and there was no one to hold my hand,” says A.H., who gave birth in April in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. Like many other women in countries across Eurasia during the pandemic, she faced a strict hospital ban against visitors and was not allowed to have her partner or a relative with her.
Inside the hospital, A.H. says she was “forced to give birth by surgical C-section”. She describes being told that her cervix had not expanded enough for a vaginal birth – and that her requests to wait for this to change were dismissed. “You are not perceived as a woman. They treat you like a machine,” she concludes.
