Giving birth during a pandemic, the fears and the unknown

Expectant family concerned about COVID-19 impact From CTV London's Celine Zadorsky – A pair of first time parents share their anxieties as they prepare for a baby during the pandemic

London, Ont. — Sarah and Andrew Forbes have experienced the emotional pain of two pregnancy losses. Now, they’re pregnant again and are extremely excited that any they will be bringing their baby boy into the world in just a few weeks, but they're also concerned.

“We’ve had two miscarriages prior to this one and it was definitely, in the first trimester, very scary but once we progressed it turned into a very normal pregnancy,” says soon to be new mom Sarah.

Sarah says things were going as planned , until the country and city was hit with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had our admittance appointment March 3 so everything then was normal and very excited and then everything was changing by the middle of the month.”

Andrew says the past month has been a whirlwind of new emotions.

“I think there is a whole lot of emotion wrapped into this right now,” says Andrew. “We are very excited, without a doubt there is definitely a lot of nervousness and there is a grey cloud hanging over the due date as well.”

For now the couple have been told by their OB-GYN that as long as it’s a vaginal birth, Andrew will be able to be in the room with Sarah, however if there are any complications, that will change.

“I know that right now if I were to need a C-section he wouldn’t be there. I would be alone. So that’s, like I just want everything to go normal but you can’t plan those things,” says Sarah, who is 37 weeks pregnant.

Because of the pandemic, she doesn’t have the standard weekly obstetrics appointments that take place in the third trimester.

She adds that knowing she will be giving birth in the middle of a pandemic is frightening.

Once the baby arrives the couple knows they won’t be able to celebrate with family and will have to self-isolate at home, something Andrew says will be emotionally difficult for everyone.

“All this stuff we are missing out on with our first child is hard and you know because of what we've gone through. we want to be excited as we can be but we also have to be cautiously optimistic in terms of what we are going to go through.”

Obstetrics team at LHSC preparing possible COVID-19 labours and deliveries

Preparing for the real possibility of having a patient with COVID-19 giving birth, medical staff in obstetrics are doing everything they can to be ready.

With the help of the Western's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, labour and birthing simulations have been taking place at the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC).

Many of the simulations are happening in the real clinical environments with real equipment so that the teams are prepared for any possibility

“We are focusing on; Do we have the right people there? How are we communicating it?” says obstetrics and gynaecology professor Dr. Taryn Taylor.

“We need to know, the chain of communication across the team, this way when we do have a real live patient with COVID, we can make sure we are prepared and ready. We are also making sure our policies are tightened up as much as possible so that everyone is on the same page with what needs to happen.”

Labour and delivery isn’t the only COVID-19 simulation taking place. More than 30 Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry faculty members have been running simulations on various COVID-19 cases hospital staff may encounter.