The small town of Bucha, 30km (18.5 miles) from the capital Kyiv, had come under relentless bombardment since the start of the war.
Twenty-one-year-old Anna, along with her husband and brother, had previously taken refuge in the basement of their block of flats. But when the electricity was cut off and the heating stopped working, the basement was plunged into darkness, and it was bitterly cold.
Anna's husband Volodymyr was torn between remaining in Bucha or trying to flee. When they did finally try to escape by car, they had had to turn back when they heard that a column of Russian military vehicles was heading their way.
"We then decided to stay in the apartment," Anna told the BBC. "I preferred to give birth at home and not in a dusty basement. I had difficulty breathing, my lungs hurt."
When she went into labour late on 7 March, she called her neighbours for help. They agreed to come, but none of them had experience delivering babies.
Viktoria Zabrodskaya, Anna's 49-year-old neighbour, told the BBC they worried that if something went wrong, they wouldn't know what to do.
The room was lit with candles and the only available water was freezing cold from bottles.
