WELL+BEING
Pregnancy and the
Pandemic Stories of three local health-care professionals who cared for COVID patients while pregnant
written by JANET HEIM Navigating the COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge, for sure. Imagine caring for coronavirus patients in the midst of your own pregnancy. The following stories are unique, but all three of these women faced anxiety and fears while being selfless professionals who put their patients’ care first. Lindsay Stein, MSN, RN Lindsay Stein has been clinical manager of the Emergency Department at Meritus Medical Center near Hagerstown since early March. After struggling with infertility and going through in vitro fertilization (IVF), Stein, 31, learned she was pregnant on March 4, 2020. While pregnant, and during the bulk of the pandemic response, she was clinical manager of the Intermediate Care Unit, which became a COVID-19 unit the day she learned she was pregnant. “It was definitely amazing news,” Stein said of her pregnancy. Yet the change at work added a layer of uncertainty. “It was nerve-wracking and anxious at the same time. We didn’t know how contagious the virus was, the side effects ... There was a lot of wariness.” Also of concern was how COVID-19 might affect the development of her baby in utero. At the start of her pregnancy, the Frederick, Md., resident was also working in the ER at anoth-
er facility as a bedside nurse. Stein decided to quit that job and work only at Meritus, where, as a manager, she was not working directly with patients, yet inspiring her team. “I told my staff this is the Olympics of health care. This is why we went into this field. There was a lot of pride, confidence and courage,” she said. She went into labor on her lunch break and gave birth to a boy, Kieran, on Nov. 5, 2020, at Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Towson, Md. The only time Stein took off was after her son’s birth.
Lindsay Stein, a registered nurse at Meritus Medical Center, holds a photo of her son Kieran. Stein was pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic and gave birth to her son in November. COLLEEN MCGRATH
