The Start of a Pandemic

I remember in January of 2020, there was some rumblings about this new virus spreading throughout the world and making its way into the U.S. I was curious about it but didn’t understand how serious it really was. When I did my research about it, it sounded similar to the flu and other coronaviruses. The baby shower we had in February was without masks or distancing. The virus just didn’t seem to be a threat to us at that point.

As March began, Covid-19 was all the primary news coverage. Working as a physical therapist in a hospital, my husband started to worry about me. Working from home, he was constantly reading about the latest information and climbing death toll on news sites. He would gently bring up that maybe I should stop working earlier than my due date on April 3rd. I started having panic attacks about the thought of having to shorten my maternity leave to stay safe for the remainder of my pregnancy. If I stopped working now, I would waste my Family Medical Leave on time at home without a baby. How could I possibly go back to work 8 or 9 weeks postpartum? The thought was daunting. This was not part of my plan, but as we know, nothing goes as planned. 

I decided to finally talk to my office manager. When I came to her, she told me that she wanted to talk to me about the same thing. She was worried about me with the rise of this pandemic and ensured me that my maternity leave would be taken care of. She was able to work it out with HR to allow my full 12 weeks of maternity leave postpartum. The waiting game began at home, when I stopped working at 38 weeks pregnant.

Things started to change during my weekly midwife meetings. First, they started wearing masks and my husband wasn’t allowed to come to my visits. Next, I had to start wearing a mask at my appointments. I wasn’t set on a birth plan but wanted to try to have a natural birth with use of Nitrous Oxide for pain management. The midwife told me Nitrous Oxide was no longer a pain relief option for labor, because they wanted to avoid anything aerolized. Once again, another change to my plan.

My greatest fear was that my husband wouldn’t be allowed at the labor and delivery. I asked about this during my appointments. They were hopeful that it wouldn’t get to that point but couldn’t guarantee it. I started panicking and researching home births. I wanted to just go into labor before any more rules and regulations at the hospital changed. On March 24th, a “stay at home” order was passed in the state. The realization hit me that this postpartum period was going to be a very lonely time. 

Continue with my birth story: I Was Sitting, Wishing, Waiting…