Pandemic Babies: Pregnancy in The Age of Corona Virus

Who knew how much could change in 9 months?

At the beginning of 2020, I was pregnant and had never heard of coronavirus. By February, I was seeing a lot of memes about a new sickness and hearing a lot of jokes about beer. By March, half the world was shutting down, with millions not allowed to leave their homes unless for essential services. And then the rest of 2020 became the strangest year most for almost everyone around the world.

Having the most significant personal event in my life synch up with the most significant global event in my lifetime was an interesting experience, to say the least. So I have written this article to shine a light on the experiences of the mothers giving birth to the babies born in the age of coronavirus. I had other mothers share their experiences with me too.

Fear of The Unknown & Mental Health

Pregnancy is already a highly emotional time protecting your health that protects your baby. Risks are taken so much more seriously and our number one priority is bringing your child into the world as healthy as possible. When you are stuck in a global shut down of society, it is hard not kind of fear what could happen to you and your baby.

At one point in the early days, I was told this pandemic was going to be as bad as the Spanish flu and half the population was going to catch it. I was scared of what was happening to the world. For women all around the planet, being pregnant in 2020 has had a whole lot more stress dumped into their reality and seriously affected their mental health.

"I felt very protective over my baby and extremely anxious around how coronavirus would impact us. There were stories about mothers testing positive and being separated from their babies, I was crying a lot and my stress levels were high, which in turn made me feel guilty for the effects I was passing onto baby. It wasn’t a great time, made worse by the fact no-one knew anything about coronavirus-19 so there were no answers." -Kerry, Ocean Shores

"As the pregnancy progressed and COVID got worse, I started to have lots of anxiety with who’d be allowed at the birth" -Heather Central Coast

 Judgment

The year was full of people judging other people everywhere you went for things that in 2019 were completely normal. For example, going to lunch with a friend or grocery shopping without a facemask. Pregnant women already are at the front of a lot of judgment so by just existing as a pregnant woman in 2020, you are being judged.

"During my first pregnancy strangers would compliment me and smile, being pregnant as the pandemic was starting was a very different experience. Everyone was weary, everyone giving each other unsure looks."- Kerry, Ocean Shores

And then, for the people who fell pregnant during 2020, the first response from others is wither laughing at the "lockdown baby" or judgment for even bring a human into the world in uncertain times.

Isolation & Separation

"Being pregnant through covid was a really isolating experience.... our support systems for birth and the postnatal period were thrown into disarray." - Stacey, Gipsland

There were also very strict regulations around who could support women giving birth and receiving care. This was part of the reason I personally changed to planning a homebirth so my mum could be there. Some of the rules and regulations separating families around childbirth were heartbreaking.

"I had to attend all my medical appointments alone, my partner was allowed in but my toddler wasn’t and so my partner had to look after him."..."Breastfeeding Children weren’t allowed on the maternity ward. As it was such a challenge to continue breastfeeding throughout pregnancy I didn’t want to be separated from him while I was on the ward which could have caused him to wean. I negotiated my toddler being allowed to see me to be able to have a feed and meet his little brother. It’s so hard being separated from your baby, it was just heartbreaking to think I could have been separated from my toddler for days (we’d never spent a night apart and bedshare so it was a huge thing for him not to have me home)."
-Kerry, Ocean Shores

Change of Plans

We all know pregnancy and birth can not go to plan but with so many guidelines changing, so many more families were pushed to change their birth plans. I was booked in to give birth at a birth center inside a major hospital but with the intensifying covid situation, the vibe at the hospital was like a biohazard prison. I decided to hire a private midwife and have all my appointments and birth safely at home. The support of people attending births in hospitals also changed many family's plans.

Midwife Stacey who was facing having to change her homebirth plans to a hospital birth due to a breach baby said "In non covid times I probably wouldn't have struggled so much with this idea, but as covid took hold restrictions on support people in labour started. So it became clear that if bub remained breech I would only be able to have 1 support person with me in hospital. And as my family couldn't come look after our son, my partner was going to be forced to stay home and look after him and I would be labouring with my midwife (as a support person only - no admitting rights)."

Another mother Sarani, had to cancel her birth photographer for her twin birth due to visitor restrictions and had "no footage of birthing the second twin, and even forgot to get a photo of the placentas".

Effect on Birthing

The pandemic has affected so many people on so many levels beyond the health scare. Some people are losing their livelihoods have been affected and overall, a lot of families are experiencing a lot of stress and that is not supportive of easier birthing.

"Stress triggers fight/flight responses and creates tension – body and baby get the message that the environment is not safe for baby to be born and will do everything possible to keep baby inside for as long as possible. Valuable nutrients and resources are deployed to ‘fight’ the ‘danger’ (stress) and baby doesn’t then get all that’s needed to develop easily. Since Covid struck many birth professionals have reported more morning sickness, complications in pregnancy, interventions and even baby reflux. This could well be a result of high Covid stress that mothers are inadvertently responding to." - Kirstin from The Hypnobirthing Experts

Born into  a different World

Most parents who were expecting a baby in 2020 would not have imagined the world that these babies are being born into. Freedoms we took for granted a year ago are not available for so many families during one of the most special and valuable times of their lives. Things like visiting post-birth support services and family are not part of the first year of some babies' lives. Even seeing your dearest relatives has been out of the picture for so many new families. 

"It's been so strange having a baby who has barely seen the MCHN, who thinks people wearing face masks is normal, to now have a 7-month-old baby who hasn't met any of her grandparents,"- Stacey, Gipsland

"We’re thankful for video chats but they’re not the same as real life...the fact they’ve missed so much of the first part of his life will always be a huge sadness for us all" - Kerry from Ocean Shores has a 6 moth old who also hasn't ever been cuddled by is grandparents either. 

 Positives

Now being pregnant during Covid is not all doom and gloom. To be honest, without disrespect to everyone who has really struggled in the last year, covid has had some positive impacts on my life. It took the pressure off and gave us downtime for a period of our lives that what we needed, was downtime at home as a family.

"My partner began working from home in March and is still doing this, which has had some positives! He has been able to help a lot more with cooking dinner and kid-wrangling, which was incredible when I was so sick." -Stacey, Gippsland

"Our post-partum was extra special. Our Midwife came to our home for every check so there was no stressful appointments with a newborn. We were able to spend time bonding and getting to know each other without the stress of after school activities or social events. I was able to take time to heal and really get to know my baby and for this I am very grateful. He is a beautiful happy calm baby and I feel the time at home has a lot to do with it."- Heather, Central Coast 

 Summary

The age of coronavirus has thrown multiple spanners the works of the plans of millions of birth mothers across the world. The babies of the pandemic will grow to learn about the stories of the global chaos that was happening around the time of their birth and the stress, isolation, and change of plans that were created for their parents.

I was lucky enough to have a complication-free home birth, In my own bubble protected from the chaos out there. I was able to use the downtime to completely declutter my home and put my feet up prior to the birth knowing every single belonging in my house did belong. That gave me the freedom to use my spare time after the baby to launch Sort it Out Sustainably because I was supported not burdened by my house.

A period where we are all told to stay at home and work online was the best thing that could have happened to me and I am grateful for that.