Ukraine

Abstract Prior literature on fertility during war examines high‐fertility settings using quantitative data on births collected mainly after fighting ends. In contrast, we analyze cognitive processes related to childbearing during wartime in Ukraine, where a full‐scale war erupted in the context of long‐standing low fertility. We conducted 22 in‐depth, semi‐structured virtual interviews and three focus groups with women of reproductive age who have either no children or one child residing in three large Ukrainian cities facing regular Russian aerial attacks. We apply the framework of cultural schemas to show how previous culturally embedded assumptions about childbearing inform reproductive thinking under conditions of ongoing war. Fertility‐related thought processes during war are more complex and ambivalent than implied by sweeping statements about how armed conflict affects fertility rates. While safety concerns, economic hardship, and separation from partners predictably discourage fertility, uncertainty about the war's duration and a sense of life's fragility can motivate pro‐birth rhetoric. Ambivalence in reproductive thinking manifests through openness to childbearing if pregnancy occurs, despite a reluctance to actively plan it.

Highlights Refugee women are distinctively disadvantaged and fare worse than other migrants. Childcare access substantially improves the integration of Ukrainian refugee mothers in Germany. Childcare boosts mothers’ employment, use of language courses, language proficiency, and host-country social contacts. Childcare programs are an untapped policy lever for the integration of refugee mothers.