Deja vu for Briar
Before our first baby I was told I wasn't ovulating so would need fertility assistance to get pregnant, we booked our appointment in the hopes of getting prescribed medication to help ovulation. It was with great shock and excitement that we found out we were pregnant 3 days before that appointment. I've never had strangers at the end of the phone sooo excited as we cancelled our appointment!
In the third trimester of pregnancy in 2020, the world around us started changing with what would become the Covid 19 pandemic. It was all unknown back then, but a scary world to be bringing a child into. As things progressed and NZ bought in alert levels to deal with Covid, all the rules around birthing changed - isolation, limits on support people, advice to leave hospital asap after birth if possible. Heading into birthing was not just an exciting process, there was an element of fear for us all.
We birthed in level 4 lock down. Thankfully our little girl’s dad was able to stay the entire time, and at the time, we felt like we had an incredible experience, with an incredible midwife who will forever mean the world to us.
We then lived her newborn days in isolation at home to stay safe, where she didn't meet anyone for weeks, even many months for some; some still haven't met her nearly 2 years later. We didn't get to have certain moments like maternity photos, newborn photos, or mum and bub groups because they were all cancelled.
However, we have always said we were the right people to have a baby in lockdown, living rurally and being home bodies anyway. But we certainly missed being able to have the "village" around us and sharing the excitement of a new baby with those around us. We didn't get the home cooked meals, or the baking.
Everyone was living a different life and was scared of the changing world while dealing with their own Covid related concerns so they weren't really aware of what we were going through, or the anxieties of having a newborn in a pandemic (except our nearest and dearest who did everything to keep us all safe).
To help me process what we, and many others had been through in 2020, and to hopefully be used as a resource and memory, I wrote about our experience in Denise Ives’ book 'Mamas in Lockdown'.
We knew the pandemic wasn't over, it could/would be there for years. But New Zealand was doing so well with maintaining things at the borders that we all started living a reasonably normal life again, with the odd precaution.
It was then we thought about another baby. Knowing how hard it was to get pregnant the first time round we thought it could be the same this time, so we did the whole "if it happens, it happens" ...and it happened. Pretty much straight away with no issues at all. Once again a shock, but an absolute blessing.
And then again the world started changing with a new variant of Covid - Omicron. The rest of the world was dealing with it at high rates so it was only a matter of time before it reached our borders and got into New Zealand.
And then, in our third trimester, it did! Our daily numbers increased, and Covid was in our communities.
This is a case of Deja Vu, but feels so much worse. It is bringing back all the emotions of 2020 plus some emotions we didn't feel at the time. And this time round there is no lockdown, we have moved away from elimination to learning to live with Covid in the community.
As things progress we are being told that the peak of omicron transmission will be around our expected due date.
NZ is loosening restrictions but once again all the rules around birthing are changing. There is the risk that one of us may get Covid now, have Covid at the birth or be a close contact. That is a risk for not only us, but also our midwife. This will mean changing birth support and who will be allowed in during labour (if anyone), depending on circumstances. And the guidelines will continue to change as we learn how to live with Covid 19.
So once again, it is the unknown, and once again heading into birthing is not just an exciting process, there is an element of fear.
To add to all this for us, we moved towns in 2021 to a smaller town. It has what is considered a rural hospital and is incredibly short staffed. All DHBs do things differently and this means there is even more of the unknown, with a different midwife, different team, different hospital, different protocols etc.
So here I am again, writing; to help process what we are experiencing as we head into birthing in a pandemic, and for other birthing persons out there, in the same situation of Deja Vu, to realise you are not alone.
It all feels overwhelming and scary. But we birthed during level 4 lock down of Covid 19 pandemic 2020. We can birth during this period of peak transmission of Covid 19 Omicron 2022.
And are we doing this a 3rd time? For us, No Way! Who knows what could happen!