Pregnancy in a Pandemic

I was pregnant and delivered my baby in the middle of a pandemic. Holy crap, I never would have imagined that I would be telling a story like this. 

I must say that I had it EASY compared to most. Both in my pregnancy and during the pandemic. I’ve said it in the past, my pregnancy was textbook. I worked until March of 2020 when NY shut down and my job closed. I was home until May. I was a NYS employee and was mandated back to work. I loved (and was bored out of my mind) being home in the last trimester.

I worked until the day I went into labor. I worked 10 hour shifts and wore a mask, luckily we weren’t open to the public just yet and it wasn’t strenuous work. But being that I was at work, it prevented me from being with some family.

 

 

See many of mine and my husband’s families have health concerns or were essential workers. So we spent a lot of time in isolation from each other. I think that got me more anxious than the virus did. 

Many families faced having to go to their OB appointments alone, partners unable to be present for sonograms. Many hospitals in the very beginning were not allowing support persons with the birthing person at all. It wasn’t until around the time that I gave birth that they started allowing just one. Then in NY they mandated that hospitals must allow at least 1 support person in the labor rooms.

We are so grateful for the timing of everything so that Bobby could be with me. There were still many hospitals even into early this year that were not letting those support persons leave! Some would allow reentry the following day, and others not at all. 

 

 

One of the things that we missed out on, and we are both kind of okay with it, was a baby shower. Neither of us really enjoy being the center of attention, but knew others wanted to celebrate with us. So we held a drive-by baby shower (in the rain). We enjoyed ourselves for the most part and were able to visit with the few that came to say Hi and still be socially distanced. We also weren’t able to have a large christening celebration for the baby when that time came. 

After our son was born we quarantined for 2 weeks and had many meals delivered to us. That was probably the most disappointing for our families, that they only got to meet him virtually at first. And for me, that I didn’t get the help I was expecting. It made recovering from a c-section even harder on me. 

 

 

I think that all of these parents that had to go through pregnancy, labor and delivery and the beginning of their postpartum period are the strongest people in the world. We all faced a challenging time and I do not mean to lessen anyone’s experience. But moms…. You Rock. And now you know that you can survive ANYTHING!