Delivering Babies During A Pandemic
I have been delivering babies for many years. I have delivered them in small community hospitals, and large university settings. I have even delivered one in the emergency room and one in a parking lot. The last few months of delivering obstetric care have felt as though I am a stranger in a strange land. It has changed the way I have had to deliver care, how I think about delivering care, and even how I care.
In the beginning of this crisis, before anyone knew what was to come, we first thought the Corona virus was somehow not affecting our community. That false notion led to us working and behaving as we always had in the delivery room: no masks or protective equipment during most deliveries, (patients needed to see our faces!) lots of provider-to-patient touching (with and without gloves), and lots of breathing, pushing and spewing of bodily fluids in close quarters. I’m surprised there were not more infections of all kinds resulting from these practices. When the number of cases of Covid-19 started rising and California made new rules for everyone, we began to believe that everyone may be infected, and most were asymptomatic carriers. The rules in the delivery room changed drastically and we all started wearing personal protective equipment all the time. Sadly and out of necessity, this completely changed the culture of the delivery room. No hugging, no high five celebrations when the baby finally came out; no family in the room and no visitors. My relationship and my eye contact with my patients became even more vitally important, and I told more than one patient, “Don’t worry, I will be there with you, even if no one else can be.” They understood the safety issue, but the tears still flowed. Birth plans BC (before Covid) consisted of pages of dreamy desires for the day of delivery. Women would list out many things that were important to their delivery experience, and we would discuss them at their third trimester visits. Birth plans AC (after Covid) changed drastically, and I’ll never forget the one that a patient handed me that had one sentence on the page stating “My main desire from my birth experience is_________” on which she had written “TO NOT DIE.” My heart broke for what planning a birth had become.
A few weeks back, I had one patient, a healthy young lady having her first baby, who had been laboring all day. She was…
