Kerry's COVID-19 pregnancy story
Kerry recently gave birth to her second child Ayla under the care of the Maternity team at The Royal London Hospital. Kerry reflects on her experience of being pregnant and giving birth during COVID-19.
“My partner and I have a three-year-old son called Luca, who was also born at The Royal London Hospital in March 2017, by emergency C section as I had a cord prolapse at 31 weeks. He spent 44 days in Neonatal intensive care unit there and the team were amazing with us and him, so I was keen to have baby number two at The Royal London Hospital too”.
“I feel I have been quite lucky as COVID-19 has not had a huge effect on my pregnancy, given that lockdown started when I was 8 months pregnant. My antenatal appointments still went ahead as normal in person at both my GP surgery and the hospital. I found it reassuring still being able to see the medical team rather than having to have telephone consultations”.
Kerry has praised the Barts maternity team across social media and documented her experience throughout her pregnancy journey. Kerry explained: “Due to a rather traumatic birth experience with my son three years ago I really felt like all the midwives, sonographers and consultants I saw in this pregnancy really took that into account and didn’t rush any of my appointments. This made me feel reassured that this birth would be a much more positive experience. I remember going for my vaginal birth after caesarean appointment and seeing a lovely midwife named Adele who spent what felt like ages listening about my previous experience. She talked to me about all the options available and even took me on a tour of the labour ward which I had not had with my first pregnancy. She then requested to see me for a second appointment two weeks later to discuss my preferences further which was amazing, as I did not feel ready to decide at the first appointment. She was so compassionate and clearly loves her job which made me feel safe and comfortable with my decisions around the birth this time around”.
On the day of Ayla’s birth, Kerry was having a planned C section. She was made aware there may be a bit of a wait to go to theatre, as she was not a high-risk pregnancy. Kerry said: “Regina, my midwife on the day was great at popping in to see my partner and I regularly and updating us on how the wait was looking and checking we had all we needed. I was also visited by Susie, the consultant who was going to be carrying out my C section and she talked me through everything. Susie was really upbeat and positive which made us feel great about the whole experience”.
Kerry explained: “I was under general anaesthetic for my first child and I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect in theatre but James, the anaesthetist was great in talking my partner and I through everything he was doing and we all even had a few laughs. The actual experience was just what I had wanted. I was awake and able to see the birth of my second child. We will be forever grateful to Susie, James, Regina and the rest of the team in theatre for giving us this experience”.
The brilliant care continued on the post-natal ward and Kerry’s midwife Sophie, who looked after her from admission to discharge, was great in checking on her and keeping her updated regarding discharge home. Kerry said: “I want to say a special thanks to Ali Herron, who came to check in on me on the post-natal ward, to find out how everything went. I can imagine she is extremely busy, as are the rest of the tea, but she genuinely wanted to check how I was and reassure me about how normal the teams were trying to keep everything for mums, despite the current situation”. Kerry wanted to say: “Thank you so much to the whole team on 6F and 8F for an amazing experience, especially Regina, Susie, James, Sophie and Ali”.
Congratulations to Kerry and her partner on the birth of their beautiful daughter, Ayla!