Lauren Hardy gave birth to her baby girl on April 20th, a month into the coronavirus pandemic in Pennsylvania.
“I think that, ya’ know towards the end of the pregnancy it was getting pretty stressful, just knowing that, ya know the virus was getting kind of closer to home and just watching it kind of creep in as I neared the end of the pregnancy,” Lauren Hardy, Mother from Mount Union, said.
She says even though family and friends weren’t able to be apart of baby Laikyn’s birth, or seen her since, Lauren tries to focus on what she does have.
“Instead of looking at it as a sad thing you can’t go out and see everybody, or you can only have one visitor, just make it so that it’s a more special experience for you and your baby and just more time for one on one bonding, Hardy said.
Lauren’s midwife, Mary Habashy says a pregnancy is stressful enough and even more so during this pandemic.
If you are pregnant and struggling, before or after the birth of your child, don’t be afraid to ask for mental health help.
“If the anxiety becomes thoughts of harm to self, it’s just self overwhelming…you know, I think the importance of asking for help even in counseling and maybe even in medication as needed,” Mary Habashy, Certified Nurse-Midwife from Geisinger Hospital and Gray’s Woods, said.
Habashy says even though family can’t see you or your baby, they can help in other ways.
“Saying yes to help, so whether that’s yes we need groceries, delegating friends and family to go get groceries, or make meals, drop off meals at the door step, go get us some more diapers and drop it off at the porch,” Habashy said.
During the pandemic, Geisinger Health is increasing the amount of time in between low-risk pregnant mother’s prenatal appointments. So, a mother may have eight weeks in between appointments, until the end of the pregnancy.
Geisinger Health is launching a program to screen postpartum depression.
When mothers visit their doctors for routine checkups or bring their children to the pediatrician’s office they’ll be screened.
Geisinger Health says, “The program uses the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), a validated 10-item questionnaire most commonly used to screen for postpartum mood disorders. During prenatal appointments, moms will be screened during their initial obstetrician visit, at the 28-week and 34-week checkups, during the six-week postpartum visit and during the one-year postpartum checkup visit. The screening program expands to pediatric appointments, where mothers will be screened via iPad or by a nurse in the exam room during the encounter as part of their child’s well-child visits from two weeks to 12 months.”
To visit Geisinger’s online pregnancy hub for resources for women’s health, pregnancy, breastfeeding, postpartum depression and newborn care you can go to: https://www.geisinger.org/pregnancy?utm_source=earned-media&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=wandc-pregnancy