Hope, and New Life, in a Brooklyn Maternity Ward Fighting Covid-19
In a hospital at the center of the crisis, nearly 200 babies have arrived since March. Some pregnant women have fallen extremely ill, but doctors are winning battles for their lives and their children’s.
The Brooklyn Hospital Center’s maternity floor is a place of anxiety for staff and patients. But amid the fear, mothers with Covid-19 are experiencing moments of joy and gratitude. PLAY VIDEO 03:47
Pregnant in the Coronavirus Epicenter
The Brooklyn Hospital Center’s maternity floor is a place of anxiety for staff and patients. But amid the fear, mothers with Covid-19 are experiencing moments of joy and gratitude.April 12, 2020Image by Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
By Sheri FinkPhotographs by Victor J. Blue
April 12, 2020
Updated 10:35 a.m. ET
The worried doctors stood together after their rounds, weighing the risks. A 31-year-old pregnant woman was in peril, her lungs ravaged by the coronavirus. If they delivered her baby now, it might reduce the strain on her body and help her recover.
But it was more than two months before the due date, and the infant would probably have difficulty breathing, feeding and maintaining temperature and be at risk for long-term health problems. The surgery itself, a cesarean section, would be a stressor for the mother.
In the end, the three obstetricians agreed: Neither the mother, on a ventilator, nor the child in her womb was getting enough oxygen, and the best chance to save both was to bring the baby into the world. Today.
“We needed to do something,” said Dr. Erroll Byer Jr., chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, reflecting on that morning nearly two weeks ago.
The obstetrics unit, which delivers about 2,600 babies a year, is typically a place of celebration and fulfilled hopes. But amid the pandemic, it has been transformed.
Nearly 200 babies have arrived since the beginning of March, according to Dr. Byer. Twenty-nine pregnant or delivering women have had suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. They have been kept separate from other patients, and medical workers wear protective clothing when attending to them. Hallways where women walked as they endured labor are empty, with the mothers-to-be confined to their rooms. Multiple doctors and nurses in the department have fallen ill.
Even healthy pregnant women are anxious. “They don’t feel the happiness and joy that many people experience” at this time of life, Dr. Byer said. Worse, some pregnant patients who become sick are so scared of coming into the hospital — citing fear of the virus or of being alone — that they have delayed doing so. A few of them have become dangerously ill
You're a cold black man....
Until after the lockdown is over.. this ain’t it. Innocent babies born sick due to the epidemic or pregnant women having medical issues is not equivalent to abortion. I’m out. Some of y’all need to relax from making threads until your brain gets out of quarantine.