Pregnancy and Birth During Lockdown

My first midwife appointment at 10 weeks was relatively normal apart from both midwives being in full PPE! Due to the restrictions on partners attending meetings I opted not to have any scans during my pregnancy. Whilst this might seem strange to others it drastically reduced my stress levels as I didn’t have to worry about getting into Leeds to go for appointments when I didn’t have any childcare. I also decided that I would have another home birth as then I knew that Anthony could be with me throughout the labour and birth, in hospitals partners were unable to join their birthing mother until the very end of the labour if at all depending on the situation - that was not the scenario I wanted to be in!

I arranged to have home visits with the same community midwife each time, this made a massive difference as I had continuity of care, I actually got to know my midwife and she got to know us.

The hardest thing throughout my pregnancy was not being able to see anyone other than my direct family in our support bubble. I attended an online pregnancy wellbeing course arranged by Your Space in Leeds and online pregnancy yoga classes, nothing is quite the same as spending time in the company of other people but they did keep me going and meant I allotted time each week for me which otherwise was quite a difficult thing to do! The meeting with the home birth team to discuss my birth plan was completed over the phone, very different to my first pregnancy as I had probably met most of the team by the time it came to giving birth. My due date was 30th December 2020, but I was sure I would go over as I had with my first. I did go over and went into labour in the early hours of 12th January, we didn’t need to call out the birth team until late on that evening however and thankfully they weren’t busy! They arrived around 12.30am and I was labouring away with regular contractions in front of a roaring fire in the living room with the birth pool being filled in the dining room ready for me to get in. I got in the pool around 3am and Scarlett arrived at 3.40am, weighing a whopping 8lb3oz! Thankfully our community midwife could attend for our next two check-ups at home so we stayed home in the warm for the first two weeks before we ventured outside for the short trips to take Connie to nursery and back. Scarlett is thriving and has fitted right in, we can’t wait to share her with family once lockdown is over. LISA