Having a baby during Idaho’s coronavirus outbreak? Here’s what to expect
The fifth time Megan Blackhurst gave birth was unlike any other. She was delivering a baby for someone else — and doing it in the middle of a pandemic.
Blackhurst, 26, was a surrogate for a family in Oregon. Just weeks before she was due to deliver the family’s baby girl, Idaho Gov. Brad Little announced Idaho’s first coronavirus case. COVID-19 had arrived in Idaho, and — like many other pregnant women in Idaho — Blackhurst wasn’t sure what to expect.
It was years since she had given birth in a hospital. Her second, third and fourth children were born at home. While Blackhurst preferred that setting, the baby’s parents felt more comfortable with a hospital birth. So that was the plan — until the coronavirus added a new wrinkle.
“When the pandemic started happening, we both were second-guessing the hospital birth,” said Blackhurst, who lives in Nampa.
But what happened in the next few weeks gave Blackhurst a new appreciation for health care workers, and a first-hand look at what Boise’s hospitals are doing to protect families and the babies they’re bringing into the world.
“We were blown away at how special it still felt, and how loving and supportive the nurses and doctors were,” she said. “They went above and beyond to make us feel like life was still normal.”
What’s it like to have a hospital birth now?
In the weeks since Blackhurst left the maternity unit at the St. Luke’s hospital in Downtown Boise, other women have asked her about the experience.
Did she have to wear a bunch of personal protective equipment during the birth? (No.) Were all the doctors and nurses in haz-mat suits? (No.) Could people come and go, bringing her food or popsicles? (Unfortunately, that’s also a no.)
Some women and families are unsure about the safety of a hospital birth. Hospitals in some U.S. cities have been inundated with patients who need intensive care, and the coronavirus is believed to be very contagious unless people and facilities take adequate measures to keep it in check.
Boise-area obstetricians told the Statesman that Treasure Valley hospitals and their staff are working hard to keep maternity patients safe.
“The (labor and delivery) units are completely locked” from people coming and going, said Dr. Clarence Blea, a St. Luke’s Health System OB-GYN who specializes in complicated and higher risk pregnancies.
At the St. Luke’s hospital where Blackhurst delivered, the ICU is on a different floor, and people cannot “come and go as you please to the units,” he said.
Local hospitals also haven’t seen the massive need for hospitalization that has overwhelmed hospitals in larger cities, Blea added.
“We’re not the super hot spot of New York, we’re doing a good job, and we’re learning from those around us,” he said.
Expectant mothers usually decide to stick with a hospital birth after hearing about the safety measures, said Dr. Shashi Ajmani, an OB-GYN at Saint Alphonsus Health System. Some mothers who are concerned about a surge at the hospital have opted to be induced shortly before their due date, when that’s safe, she said.
The physicians stressed that women should always talk with their health care providers before making a change of plans.
Blackhurst and the baby’s parents weren’t so sure about the hospital birth. Blackhurst worried a coronavirus-era hospital would feel sterile and alien during childbirth.
“We started exploring the option of a home birth,” she said.
It was late March when they decided to shift gears. Blackhurst was a few weeks shy of her due date. She contacted the midwife who previously helped her deliver at home. They made plans.
Then, her due date came and went. Soon, it wouldn’t be considered safe to attempt a delivery at home.
“We kind of started feeling like, maybe there’s a reason to be in the hospital,” she said. “So we called my doctor, who’d been with us from the beginning of my pregnancy.”
Because she was so far along, the doctor scheduled Blackhurst to be induced the next day.
COVID-19 brings some changes to labor & delivery
When she arrived at the hospital, Blackhurst immediately noticed how different things were. Hospital workers screened everyone who came through the door for signs and symptoms of COVID-19.
Another big change: Local hospitals may limit how many people can be there during labor and delivery. Sometimes, that means a doula can’t be present. Other times, it means grandma and grandpa must wait a day or two to hold the new baby.
“That’s a really tough one,” Ajmani said. “Patients are used to having a communal experience with their birth, sometimes ....”
Blea said grandparents should remember that hospitals are just trying to keep them safe by minimizing their potential exposure to the coronavirus.
“Even those events are being robbed from you, they are temporary, because you want to be there for a long time for the grandchildren,” he said.
In Blackhurst’s case, it meant having to choose between her husband — who even helped her through unmedicated births in the past — and Kelsey Nixon, the mother of the baby.
She chose to bring the baby’s mom.
Blackhurst says she “truly was blown away” by the compassion of the nurses and doctors.
Nixon agrees.
“I had bigger concerns and fears before I got to the hospital,” she said. “Once I was actually in the hospital, things felt really controlled, and people made a real effort to make you feel comfortable.”
The baby arrived “super healthy, and it was an amazing feeling in the room” as Nixon helped bring the baby into the world, Blackhurst said.
It was “this really unique birth, with just me and Megan, and that ended up being surprisingly special,” Nixon said.
Everything “seemed perfectly fine afterwards,” Blackhurst said. But two hours later, Blackhurst was still bleeding. Something was wrong.
The doctor ordered an ultrasound, and they discovered the source of the bleeding and blood clots. She needed a procedure to fix it. And that procedure was going to be painful.
The hospital team ushered Nixon and the newborn up to a maternity room and brought in Blackhurst’s husband.
Blackhurst describes the procedure to stop her uterine bleeding “worse than a natural birth.” Despite their best efforts, the procedure didn’t work, and Blackhurst had begun to hemorrhage.
With an emergency on their hands, the hospital team rushed her to an operating room. Their safety protocols said there should be a 20-minute wait between the patient and the staff being in the same room. But, Blackhurst said, the team decided that delay could end with her bleeding to death.
She went under anesthesia and woke up later, with a temporary implant to stop the bleeding. That, finally, worked, and she was on to recovery.
Then, Blackhurst came head-to-head with another fallout of COVID-19: the blood shortage resulting from fewer blood donations.
Ideally, she should have received two units of blood to replace what she’d lost, but the shortage meant she could get only one, she said.
Two days later, feeling much better, Blackhurst went home with her husband.
And the new baby, Penelope, was safe at home with her family — having met her father for the first time in the St. Luke’s parking lot.
Even in a stressful situation, trying to navigate new procedures, the hospital staff made Blackhurst feel safe, she said.
“At the end, we were so blown away at how it didn’t really affect us” to be in the hospital during a pandemic, she said. “It felt very normal.”
