Ask any mother: Nothing about childbirth is easy. But now, in the time of the coronavirus pandemic, labor and
delivery has become even more difficult. Women are
now giving birth with
masks on, and in many cases, they aren’t
even able to have their partner beside them.
Many hospitals, like New York City’s New York-Presbyterian, made the difficult choice to disallow birthing partners and require
women to give birth alone. It’s a devastating reality that some experts say is necessary in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and keep patients safe. Here’s their tweet about their coronavirus prevention policy:
Although the experience of giving birth alone — let alone while wearing a cloth face covering — is no doubt unbelievably hard, women
are tough. And they’re proving it, by sharing their labor stories on social media and urging Americans to toughen up and follow suit in order
to protect their already-overtaxed medical care workers.
Twitter user @iamlaurenmiles who gave birth on July 4 tweeted the following:
A supportive commenter offered her congrats, saying women are “something else”:
https://twitter.com/heiraden/status/1280237493108060162
Twitterer @sierraautumns says shopping with a mask on might not be totally comfortable, but points out that giving birth while wearing a
mask is MUCH harder. Yet women are doing it every day without complaint:
https://twitter.com/sierraautumns/status/1278038312930828288
And
one mom-to-be (@chmpgnsprnva4) is telling Twitter to mask up and hush up:
Twitter user @KateGregory_ reminds us that we are stronger than we know:
Twitter user @cherlytemple32 was more blunt, telling men that if women can wear masks during labor, then others can deal with the inconvenience while
shopping or picking up takeout food:
https://twitter.com/cherlytemple32/status/1281660183425486848
And dads who witnessed their partners heroically give birth with a mask on totally agree:
Some women say that they were required to wear a mask the entire time they were in the hospital, even when they were sleeping at night. Meanwhile, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended splitting up mothers and
babies for up to two weeks in order to help isolate
newborns from the threat of COVID-19 transmission.