What to expect when you’re expecting in a pandemic

There isn’t a guideline on what to expect when you’re expecting during a pandemic, and for parents who are welcoming new babies right now, pregnancy and childbirth is not what they imagined when they first saw those positive pregnancy tests.

Baby Rosie Enns was born three weeks ago at the Regina General Hospital, just as pandemic protocols for COVID-19 went into high gear. Parents Shawna and Skott Enns said the labour and birth unit was almost empty, with only one other couple having a baby and no visitors allowed.

“I was only able to have one person as a support person and he had to be screened so they asked (Skott) if he had been outside of the province and if he had any experience with fevers. But if he had left the hospital to go help with our older boys and had wanted to come back in, he would have to be rescreened,” Shawna explained.

She wound up staying overnight by herself with Rosie and bringing her home alone. This time there was no village of help from family and friends waiting to welcome the baby home like there was when Rosie’s twin big brothers were born six years ago.

Instead, Shawna and Skott have found ways to show her off to family while respecting a safe social distance through video chats and the window.

Rosie Harriet Enns (Submitted)

“We’ve had the grandparents come and visit her and of course the boys as well through the window, and it’s not the same. But it’s something and it’s certainly a story for her when she gets older to find out that’s how everyone first met her was through the window,” Shawna said.

Baby and maternal health checkups are now falling to visiting public health nurses through the maternal home visiting program. Shawna’s family doctor is only doing appointments by phone or video so she said the nurses are providing an invaluable service to new parents by continuing home visits to weigh the baby while taking extra precautions with masks, gloves and sanitizing equipment.

“It’s really important because as a new mom, without having that opportunity to get your baby weighed and to kind of check in on how you’re doing with things and how the baby is doing with feeding, it’s really difficult if that support weren’t there,” she said. “So it’s amazing that they’re still offering that and doing everything they can to make it as safe as possible as well.”

While visits and baby showers are off limits in a time of social isolation, the Enns’ friends set up a surprise baby welcome parade that the family will remember and talk about for years to come.

“Everyone wants to meet her and hold her and of course that’s just not possible right now. So a couple of our friends had surprised us and tricked us. They said one of them was just doing a quick drive-by and they were hoping that we would come out on to the deck and just give them a quick wave so the boys could say hi to their friends that way,” Skott said.

“So we came out onto the deck and not only was that car there but I think there was probably between 12 and 15 cars there and everyone had signs done up and balloons and everyone was honking and screaming. The boys loved it and Shawna had a good cry and it was a pretty special moment.”

Pregnant in a pandemic

As Morgan Gaetz counts down the weeks until her due date in June, she has had to prepare for what the pandemic might mean for her birth experience.

Her prenatal care has already shifted to doing half of her doctors appointments by phone in order to limit contact and possible exposure.

“(It’s) just fear and anxiety of the unknown, I guess I would say, because you just really don’t know what giving birth is going to look like,” Gaetz said.

Hospital policy in Regina has changed to allow only one support partner during labour and delivery who won’t be allowed to leave the hospital and return. Gaetz has been told the mother and baby unit is also sending mothers and babies home from the hospital in half the normal time as long as they don’t have any health complications.

The Gaetz family. (Brittany Flegel Photography/Submitted)

“But we’re still two months out so things could be further restricted or a little lighter by that time. So it’s really just kind of a waiting game,” she said.

While having a baby is exciting no matter what is happening around the world, Gaetz feels a little bit torn about the uncertainty.

“It’s scary to bring a new life into the world when something this massive is going on because babies, of course, you want to protect them as much as you can to begin with but now you want to protect them even more,” Gaetz said.

Fortunately, health officials have not found pregnant women or babies to be at any significantly increased risk from COVID-19 so far, but the research is very limited because the virus is so new.

For Gaetz, the idea of having one-on-one time just with her husband, toddler and new baby with no interruptions is nice. Yet it is bittersweet when she thinks about other family members who will likely have to stay away.

“If things keep going the way they are, there’s the very real potential that my mom and my husband’s parents can’t meet their new grandbaby and that’s just heartbreaking,” Gaetz said.

Gaetz said her two sisters are also pregnant and they keep in touch by phone a lot. She said they both work in health care and even with precautions from their employer she feels they are in  riskier positions at the hospital than she is working from home. All three babies are due over the summer, with hers due first.

“We might have to miss the newborn stage of all three of these babies and we’re all very close so it’s really sad to think about,” Gaetz said. “And it’s sad for my mom because she’s going to have three new grandbabies all born within three or four months of each other and she might only get to meet them through a window or through FaceTime.”

Gaetz does feel grateful to have those options with technology and the fact they all live in the same city. While it is a strange time to be pregnant, Gaetz is taking things day by day and choosing to see the bright side of something she has to look forward to.