My Pandemic Baby Girl
This blog post is a little bit more personal than my usual posts, but one that I thought would be good to share for any moms-to-be out there! Also just wanted to say “thank you” to anyone who reads my blog for sticking around after I took a very long (maternity leave) from Apothea!
My baby girl was due on April 29, and I have to admit I was a little nervous about what her hospital birth was going to look like during this stage of Covid-19. I had looked around on the internet to see how other people’s hospital births were going during this stage of the pandemic, but I quickly decided to stop reading other people’s stories. Different state protocols, different opinions, and everyone experiences birth differently. I wanted to get in the right mindset for my own.
Here’s my Covid-19 Birth Story:
On 4/27 I woke up feeling a bit off and I thought that going to yoga would help, so I did a 60 minute yoga sculpt class and then spent the day relaxing with my family. We went out to coffee and spent the afternoon lounging around on the porch and cooking dinner. When my husband got home we went for a long walk with our son, and when we got back I went into labor! I stayed home until midnight and tracked my contractions on an app until it told us we should go get checked at the hospital.
After getting checked in I was almost 5 cm, so we moved into the low-intervention room. I had a drug-free (epidural-free) birth with my son and that was my “birth plan” this time around. I labored on a birth ball and progressed naturally. My water broke around 4 am, and I was really hoping she would be born by 6am. My midwife checked me at 6am and I was at 8cm, and she told me it could be a couple more hours. She thought maybe the baby had gotten into a turned position, so she suggested trying to move around. I got up to start walking and that's when I truly felt the baby drop, it was such a strange feeling. It got a little bit dramatic here as no one was really prepared but she was born with one push, while I was standing up! It was an incredible feeling, and I got to pick the baby up from my midwife and hold her immediately!
We stayed the recommended length at the hospital, she was born on Wednesday morning 4/28 and we checked out on Friday 4/30. I was allowed to have visitors, only 2 at a time, but because of the pandemic my family opted not to come to the hospital. My son was not allowed to visit because of the hospital protocol, which was disappointing for us.
My entire birthing experience was not impacted at all by Covid. I did not have to wear a mask, or present a vaccination card. I was never Covid tested, nor was my husband. I believe they told us that we couldn’t leave the room, but that really wasn’t an issue as we never felt the need to leave. The entire birthing team did wear masks, the entire time.