David Beckham Lends Social Media Accounts and His 127.5 Million Followers to Doctor Helping Mothers Give Birth in Ukraine
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David Beckham handed over his Instagram and Facebook accounts, with a combined total of 127.5 million followers, to a doctor helping mothers give birth in Ukraine.
Beckham announced the Instagram takeover in a Sunday post, writing that he was lending his accounts to the Head of the Regional Perinatal Centre in Kharkiv, Ukraine, identified as Dr. Iryna. The Belarusian channel Nexta TV, identified her as Irina Kondratova.
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“Head over to my story highlights to learn more about the amazing work Iryna and health workers like her are doing to save lives in Ukraine,” he added in the caption. “Please give what you can to support [UNICEF] and people like Iryna using the donation link in my bio.”
In the video posted to Instagram, Beckham highlighted that Dr. Iryna has been helping pregnant mothers give birth safely in Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.
The doctor shared her experience working with pregnant mothers throughout the crisis in several videos shared to Beckham’s Instagram Stories, which were also highlighted to remain on his page.
She showed viewers the basement that pregnant and new mothers were forced to evacuate on the first day of Russia’s invasion. Text on the video read, “It was a terrible three hours that we spent together.”
“Unfortunately, we can’t take babies who are in intensive care to the basement because they rely on life-saving equipment,” she later explained.
In another clip showing her tend to a woman and her newborn, Dr. Iryna shared, “The first days were the most difficult. We had to learn how to work with bombings and strikes.”
Dr. Iryna also spotlighted a mother named Yana and her baby boy, Mykhailo, revealing that the baby was born with breathing difficulties on the second day of the war. While he’s better now, his family’s house was destroyed, leaving the family with no home to go back to.
“We are probably risking our lives, but we don’t think about it at all. We love our work,” she said in another clip. “Doctors and nurses here, we worry, we cry, but none of us will give up.”
