Diary of Spain in Lockdown - Birth in times of coronavirus

Tuesday 7^th March – Birth in times of Coronavirus

This week I’ve been interviewing women towards the end of their pregnancy, facing the prospect of giving birth during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

It goes without saying that the usual visits of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends from the Falla, all so very much of the Spanish culture, are out of the question, but these poor women don’t even know if their partners, the father of the baby, will even be allowed to be present. And during labour they will have to wear gloves and face masks.

Added to this these women, who have so far been told to stay at home as they are a high risk group, now, at the most complicated stage in the process of having a baby, have the worry of going into a place where there are COVID-19 positive patients. Imagine, going into a lift and maybe the last person in there before you had the infection.

Of course, the hospitals are prepared for this and are taking all the necessary precautions, but these women are worried and understandably so. If the mother tests positive for coronavirus I was told that the baby would be put in the neonatal ward and the mother isolated. Birth, breastfeeding and bonding are hard enough at the best of times, but now, with these added concerns I don’t know how I would cope.

They are brave and will do what they have to do. I take my hat off to them.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson continues being treated in Intensive Care at St Tomas’ Hospital, London, but he is stable. Cases in the UK are still on the rise, with 786 deaths recorded, while in Spain the number of deaths is starting to slow down. There were 743 deaths recorded today (Tuesday), a rise from yesterday, which was 637, but that was the weekend blip.