[Pioneer Press, March 23, 2020]
In addition to new rules for labor and delivery, pregnant women face changes to clinic visits, in-person access to their doctors and midwives, baby shower cancellations due to social-distancing, and rigid guidelines for keeping themselves and their newborns safe after birth.The changes, and the awareness that more restrictions could be coming, have brought anxiety, disappointment and sadness for many new parents as they lose even more control over a situation where already have little control to begin with, according to local ob-gyns, midwives and other medical professionals.
There is hopeful news, though. While research is limited and COVID-19 hasn’t been around long enough to understand its impacts on women in early pregnancy, initial studies suggest pregnant women who get the virus don’t develop severe symptoms the way they can with influenza and other respiratory illnesses, and that they don’t pass the virus along to their babies in utero, said Dr. Laura Colicchia, a perinatologist with Minnesota Perinatal Physicians who specializes in high risk pregnancies.