Here we are in the middle of Coronageddon, you, your spouse and children are home and life as we knew it all but came to a grinding halt. My own three youngest children are at home doing their home school thing, the transition to distance learning has actually been pretty smooth. I guess I’m lucky in that respect, my children's’ school really rose to this unforeseen challenge.
From the empty toilet paper shelves to the seemingly always open nail salons being deserted, things are definitely different. I don't know about you but I can do without almost everything non-essential being shut down but I may have shed a tear when I realized that included movie theaters. That one hurt.
The one thing that has remained constant is my phone ringing non-stop and my emails being bombarded with frantic moms. Aaaaaaaaah...the constants in life. It's very common for new moms or even experienced moms to have lots of questions about their little ones. Coronavirus has not interrupted that. If anything, there are even more questions. I would have never thought that possible. Covid-19 has pushed my lactation consultant business (and my ability to stand my ear pods for extended periods) to the limit.
As I man my coalition's newly launched (thanks Coronacation) warmline and write this blog, I'm reminded by my giggling children in the background we are going to be ok. Outside of practicing safe social distancing and employing good hygiene practices (which we should have been doing all along) there isn’t much we have to do differently. Rest assured moms, you can continue to confidently breastfeed your babies. Dads, it’s ok for you to keep going skin to skin, just make sure you’re washing your hands and taking precautions if you are exhibiting signs of the virus or have been around someone who contracted it.
For pregnant moms and families, as of now there is no evidence SARS-Cov-2 is transmitted from mothers with Covid-19 to their fetuses. While knowing baby is safe from vertical transmission should be extremely comforting, you should also know if you're due soon, with all of the new precautions in place you will probably have a very different and isolated experience from what you expect. I know...that's not what you wanted to hear.
This is certain to go down in history but it can't last forever. Well...it can in the books but with smart and proactive measures, we can and will return back to normalcy. Until then, I’ll continue to Zoom, GoToMeeting, Join.me, Roundee, Adobe Connect and Microsoft Teams myself into oblivion and you continue to enjoy this probably much needed time off, your family, your pregnancy, breastfeeding and going skin to skin with your sweet little baby.
