BERLIN, Conn. — Mom Kat Crescimanno had her fourth child, Ella on March 31st, 2020, just weeks after the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic.
And, she said it wasn't the same this time around.
"It’s definitely a different way to bring a child into the world this time around. It was lonely at times, not having family to help, anxiety–a lot of different emotions,” she explained.
Crescimanno is not alone.
Millions of women began the journey of motherhood in one world, and now have their babies in a very different one than they could have imagined.
It's now a world full of newly added anxieties: fear of getting infected with COVID-19, feeling isolated, missing shared doctor’s appointments with their partners, and baby showers with their friends.
For women going through infertility treatments when COVID-19 hit, the journey to motherhood was temporarily shut down altogether.
Dr. Sheiva Ghofrany, OBGYN, from Tribe Called V works with many mothers who experienced that first hand.
"There was a several month hiatus where all of the fertility monitoring and procedures were stopped," Ghofrany said, "All those women who had gone through miscarriage, or a long road of infertility, had to stop everything. So, that furthered the anxiety of ‘I had this plan and was going to have this baby’."
Ghofrany said she strives to help her patients be proactive and not paranoid. The data shows that’s been hard for moms to do.
“In Iran, Italy, America, and China, there were several different studies examining how women felt about their anxiety levels and unfortunately they found that 50 to 75% of patients felt either moderate or severe anxiety or stress because of covid specifically," Ghofrany explained.
On the other hand, new data has also been collected over the past ten months showing that so far, the majority of babies that are born to COVID-19 positive moms are negative for the virus and the vast majority have been okay and healthy.
"By and large pregnant women have not been the concern we thought they would be, which is great," Ghofrany said, "But then there’s the social layer, so many people are going through pregnancy alone.”
Tribe Called V to hold monthly online chats for moms to learn and share.
According to Ghofrany, the more women engage with each other, the better things will be:
"Find your community. I think it's really important to remind women to be physically distant, but more socially engaged during pregnancy, because when you are alone you do let your mind run into some feelings.”