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Tell us about your experiences with pregnancy, childbirth, and/or the postpartum period during the pandemic.

I found out I was pregnant ( a surprise) in July. The appointments were different being fully masked and my husband wasn’t allowed to come along. When in September we realized this pregnancy was difficult and would be filled with specialists, that proved even more difficult by having to go it alone. My husband joined me on most appointments by speaker phone or FaceTime, but as we all know from pandemic times- it’s not the same. He missed seeing the baby on an ultrasound, I missed having him hold my hand during the amniocentesis. Then when we learned the pregnancy wasn’t viable, and covid precautions prohibit a nurse from hugging you, the specialist from holding a hand, from your husband to be by your side...it adds so much to the grief and the anger. In addition to all those difficulties- due to the pandemic no one knew. No moms at school drop off noticed my growing belly, because there was no school drop off. My daughters didn’t truly understand the situation because due to covid so much was a mystery- they couldn’t join me at appointments, etc. So much was taken from us in those 5 months of pregnancy- all our hopes and dreams that came with a new baby, and all the support and love we needed from community because our community was isolated from us. We couldn’t go to a counselor together as a family, we couldn’t go to our house of worship to pray, to mourn to grieve our child. So much of the pregnancy feels like a dream- because of the isolation surrounding it.