The pandemic has reshaped the experience of childbirth, adding more tension into what is an already uncertain event
Rebecca Arian, 32, with her son, Geva Eliyah, in Swedesboro, N.J., on June 15, 2020. Arian gave birth in May. The pandemic has reshaped the experience of childbirth in New York hospitals, adding more tension into what is an already uncertain event
Image: Alice Proujansky/The New York Times
NEW YORK — Rebecca Arian, a few hours into labor at a Brooklyn hospital, was balancing on her hands and knees, trying to ease a biting contraction in her lower abdomen with no painkillers.
Then her midwife walked into the room and delivered upsetting news: Arian, 32, had tested positive for the coronavirus. While Arian tried to process this, the staff asked her to put on a surgical mask.
Wearing the mask during childbirth made it feel like she was gasping for air while her body was splitting in half, she said. In that moment, a potential diagnosis of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, was the last thing on her mind.
“I was dealing with the idea of getting the baby out of me,” said Arian, whose son was born in May.
Each year, over 100,000 infants are born in New York City, where the pandemic has now reshaped the experience of childbirth. The virus has added more tension into what is an already uncertain process, as women are entering hospitals that have been overrun by a disease that has killed nearly 22,000 in the city and more than 120,000 nationwide.
©2019 New York Times News Service