Restricted delivery

The birth story of Natasha Elliot

Tell us a bit about your experience of pregnancy during lockdown:

I went on maternity leave when I was 37 weeks pregnant. A week later the world went into lockdown, I felt a lot of pressure to keep myself and the baby so didn’t leave the house. My Husband, Simeon would do the food shopping and I felt like he was going out to war, I was worried he would bring the virus home. We would go for daily walks around our village but even that filled me with dread. I started mourning my maternity leave, I didn’t get to meet friends and family for lunches or do any last minute shopping before the baby arrived. I had too much time to think and worry, I would have really emotional days thinking about how our families wouldn’t get to meet the baby, would they love him? Would they bond with him? It really broke my heart. I had to limit the amount of news I was watching and how much time I was spending on social media because that fed into my anxiety. I just really missed out on normality!!! Many support systems were stripped away during lockdown in 2020. How did you find this and what impact did it have on your wellbeing and journey as a whole?

In a weird way I was lucky because I was at the end of my pregnancy when we went into lockdown so I only had a few appointments to attend. My midwife appointments were all at the local children’s centre and I had to go in alone, have my temperature taken and of course use hand gel. I was just nervous about if any contact with the midwifes was safe but the baby’s safety and wellbeing was my priority. As a new first time mum, do you feel that lockdown contributed to your worries about pregnancy, birth and motherhood? And if so how and why?

Yes, I would worry about going into hospital. How many people were the midwifes and doctors mixing with, this is going to put me and my baby at risk. What would I do if I got covid and was alone in hospital. All mums worry, especially first time mums, but with covid this definitely heightened my anxiety about Hudson’s health. I had separation anxiety, it took along time to feel relaxed leaving Hudson. I still hate it now and have wobbles leaving him!! Do you feel that your experience of giving birth during lockdown was impacted? If so, what was the emotional impact of this on both you and your birth partner?

The emotional impact was huge, having a baby is one of the biggest life changes anyone can go through and we did it in the middle of a global pandemic. I was overdue and the midwife was worried about the baby’s growth, so I was taken into hospital

to be monitored at 40 weeks + 4 days, again alone and had to do this for 2 days. Then they booked my induction on the Saturday (I was 41 weeks), I had to arrive at hospital for 7pm on my own not knowing what to expect. Simeon walked me to the hospital door but got told off by security for doing this. I went through early labour on my own, which was really hard. Simeon was able to come to the hospital when they decided to break my water at about 4pm on the Sunday. When he arrived contractions in full swing I could hardly even speak, with lots of doctors monitoring the baby. The labour was quite traumatic, ending in an emergency forcep delivery and on 13th April at 4:01am our beautiful baby boy Hudson entered the world. Simeon got to spend about 2 hours with us in the recovering bay and then left us in hospital for 2 days before we were reunited as a family at home. This was the hardest time for both me and Simeon, I was in huge amounts of pain with no support trying to manage breastfeeding and just feeling absolutely exhausted while Simeon was left at home wanting to be with us. We always joked that we only wanted one baby while I was pregnant but our experience has affected us so much that we do not want anymore babies, but we do feel our little family is complete and couldn’t be happier with Hudson!!!!!

Once your baby was born, how did you feel about having a “lockdown baby”? Did you appreciate the uninterrupted family time, or did you struggle without extended family and friends support around you?

little routine and really bond with Hudson and as a family of 3. It was nice not having to pressure of visitors coming over and worrying about housework etc. We could stay in our pyjamas all day if we wanted too. But we also couldn’t wait for Hudson to meet his family but that also came with worries and anxiety. Our family didn’t meet Hudson until he was 2 months old and nobody else held him until he was much older. We then finally felt more relaxed last summer and things felt ‘normal’ish but then this winter set us back and Hudson has missed out on making memories with his loved ones. We were very grateful to be able to form a support bubble with my mum and step-dad. What would you say were the main pro’s and con’s in your experience to being pregnant, giving birth and being a mum in lockdown?

If you asked me a few months ago I would have listed so many con’s, but I’m in a much brighter place now and just feel so lucky to have a cheeky, happy little one year old who is doing amazing. One of the pro’s is that I have learnt so much about myself and have been on my own journey with my mental wellbeing. As lockdown restrictions are now easing, what are you most looking forward to doing with your baby, family and friends again?

Seeing my friends and family on a regular basis and Hudson building bonds with them. Also, we can’t wait to have family days for us three, going to the zoo or swimming etc. I just want to be able to plan something without worrying about the weather or thinking about our safety.