Baby Joy Mixed With COVID Anxiety

For so many women hoping to start or expand a family, the words, “Congratulations, you’re pregnant!” are the happiest of news. The busy process of making preparations, such as scheduling medical visits, enlisting help for when the day arrives, and planning for celebrations with friends and family then begins. It can be a thrilling time.

But wait! For the past year, we have been dealing with a pandemic that by now has killed nearly 500,000 people in the U.S., has had an extraordinarily negative impact on our state and our county, and may continue to threaten us in multiple ways with no end in sight. How do you even begin to think about having a baby when you realize that for the next many months, you will need close medical monitoring -- even if you are at low risk of complications-- and require intimate contact with healthcare professionals who may work in places where they could be exposed to a deadly virus?   

We interviewed two new mothers who recently confronted this very situation. One of them, Kendal Lardie, learned she was expecting just after the March 2020 lockdown, and while her immediate reaction to the news was delight, she says she was also scared. “Scared, but positive,” is how she put it. She hoped that the virus would be over by the time she was due to deliver, but she knew that was not to be as time went on. Her entire pregnancy was spent dealing with the conditions we all experienced–uncertainty at the outset about how the virus was transmitted, what protective measures we needed to take, and the potential risk that she and her baby were subject to. “I knew that pregnant women are more at risk for catching the virus, and if I did get sick, I would be unlikely to receive the drugs to treat it because of the baby I was carrying.”

She had a saving grace: she worked from home so that she could isolate. Her husband was also home, so they were largely protected from exposure, but there were still troubling concerns. Apart from exposure during pregnancy, her other issue was whether her husband would be allowed to be with her while she was giving birth. When she found out that he would, her anxiety was considerably relieved. “I had my baby at CHOMP, and they allowed one support person to be in the room, although it had to be the same person. A week before delivery, my husband had a health issue, which was concerning, but that resolved, and he was able to be with me. “

Kendal also got what she describes as great support from her physician, Obstetrician-Gynecologist Dr. Jennifer Zeidberg, who acted not only as her obstetrician but also as a counselor. “She made sure I was not overanalyzing the dangers of being pregnant during Covid, and she was a great sounding board whenever I became anxious. She also let me know that the birth center at CHOMP is in a completely different part of the hospital from where Covid cases are treated, so I was comforted by that. Only the people associated with the Birth Center can go in and out.” What about visits to her physician’s office? “For the first few months, they did not allow anyone else to come with me, but starting in the last trimester; my husband was able to come with me for my visits, until November when things got really bad. Then no one else could come with me.”

Dr. Zeidberg, aware that pregnancy is a risk factor for Covid and that the disease could be more serious if contracted during pregnancy, had to substantially adjust her practice protocols. “We never closed down, that was the commitment we made to our patients, but of course, we took every precaution necessary to ensure that our patients and we were safe.”

Now home with her healthy baby, Kendal has admitted a few more people to her pod, but she says she and her husband are “very social,” so they are missing life as they knew it before the pandemic. Would she have chosen to get pregnant during a pandemic? “Probably not,” she says, “and that would have been the wrong decision. If you have a plan, and especially if you can work from home, there are so many hidden blessings to this situation–mainly, being able to spend time with your baby without the pressure of having to be out in circulation, exposing yourself to the virus. But that, of course, means that you’re lucky enough to be able to work from home.”

Melissa Longueria’s experience was not too different. “I found it very scary to be pregnant during a pandemic, especially since not much was known about it at first.” She was working in a restaurant at the time, where she had contact with many people. She left that job in March when everything closed down. But then she got sick at a point when regular testing for Covid was not being done, and there were only a few symptoms that had been identified as indicators of possible infection. “I was sick; in fact, I had to go to the ER. But It was before they started screening people. They said I had what they thought was bronchitis. It lasted for about three weeks. I’m still not sure if I had Covid or not.”

Melissa chose to give birth at the Monterey Birth and Wellness Center. Co-owner Caroline Cusenza says their Covid protocols evolved as more became known about transmission. Changes were also made to their office, where the community space was transformed into office space to reduce traffic coming through the Center. “We do a fair number of Zoom appointments,” she said, “ but in the last trimester, all appointments are in person. Also, we allow partners in the birthing room as well as one professional, usually a doula.” This gave Melissa a sense of security in going to the Center for her care, where she felt one hundred percent safe. “Because they don’t have a lot of people coming through, my fiance was able to come to all of my appointments. If it wasn’t necessary to be there in person, we had our appointments over the phone.”

Caroline Cusenza points out that some people choose a birthing center because they are worried about going to a hospital and being exposed to the virus. Still, mostly they come because they want to do “something different.” She does not know any Covid cases in our area, either at a birthing center or in a hospital. “Our protocols are pretty strict, and we have a lot of discussions when our patients express anxiety. We tell them that it is important for them to try to reduce stress because it does terrible things to the body.”

Still, Melissa had a lot of anxiety. She was not going out or seeing friends, so she became very isolated. “That was hard, but it was also a blessing to be able to stay home, especially in the early weeks when I had prolonged morning sickness.” Now that she is home with her healthy baby, her anxiety has “melted away.”

Now there is the question of whether pregnant women should be vaccinated. According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, roughly 20,000 pregnant women have been vaccinated in the U.S. so far, and no complications have been seen. Still, neither the CDC nor the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists provides definitive advice about whether pregnant women should receive the vaccine, given that there have been no human studies done as yet on this population.

Dr. Zeidberg is firmly on the side of getting the vaccine. “Everyone in our field has agreed that the risk of the vaccine for both preterm labor and viral influence on the body is minimal. It is a very targeted vaccine; it does not alter DNA, so as a professional group, we feel it is safe for those who want to become pregnant, those who are pregnant, and even those who are breastfeeding. In any case, Dr, Zeidberg says that “Receiving the vaccine presents far less of a risk than contracting the virus.”

Now comes the question: knowing all this, would it be safer to postpone pregnancy? Dr. Zeidberg responds, “Sadly, we think that Covid might always be with us. The more people get vaccinated, the more the risk to the community decreases. I don’t think there will be a time when we won’t have to wear masks. But the good thing is, we know how to deal with infections, all of our hospitals and birthing centers are doing everything they can to minimize risk. Society needs to move forward. Don’t change your plans out of fear.”

The issue of anxiety in patients who know they are at greater risk for catching the virus is substantial. Dr. Zeidberg points out that “The mental health support in this county is scarce for people who do not have insurance. Then there is the problem for people who have children at home who will need care while delivering their babies, especially military families who often don’t have local friends or family available to take care of those children. They are worried about the safety of outside caregivers. I try to make sure there is a safety plan in place to alleviate this worry.”

There are two additional messages that Melissa Longueria and Dr. Zeidberg want to communicate. Melissa said, “It was hard not being able to go out and do the special things with my four-year-old daughter that we used to do together, and I felt a lot of anger towards people who did not take the virus seriously or who were extremely careless in their interactions. I was someone at high risk at the time and then having a newborn, I could not help but take their careless behavior personally.” And Dr. Zeidberg says: “What my worst fear has been, not that I would get Covid, but that I might give it to someone else. I truly see vaccination as a responsibility that no one can refuse.”

Susan Meister is a journalist, columnist, and community activist  living in Pebble Beach. Susan’s writing was recognized with the 2020 Bronze Award for service writing from the Parenting Media Association. To read more of Susan's articles, click on this link.