WHAT I LEARNED AS A NEW MOM IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC

Every young girl dreams of her wedding day; the day she gets married to her prince charming and begins to raise a family. This desire was fervent and familiar to me. It finally happened on August 10^th, 2019. On that day, I walked down the aisle and declared my vows in a church full of our loved ones. It was one of the best days of my life and I was glad to finally experience it. Two days after our wedding, my now-husband and I flew to Jamaica for our honeymoon. We were really looking forward to getting a much-needed vacation due to the fact that we had planned our wedding completely by ourselves. We stayed in Jamaica for one week and then returned to the United States (US) to finally start our journey of marital bliss. Like most couples, shortly after getting married, we envisioned growing a family to call our own. As days went by, we looked forward to this blessing. One month after we got married, we learned that I was pregnant and expecting a baby. It was one of the best days of our life and a joyful moment for us. We celebrated our victory and continued living happily, unknown to us that life as we knew it would soon change.

Heading into the new year of 2020, our minds were on preparing for the expansion of our family with no hint, thought, or whisper of words like ‘pandemic’, ‘social distancing’, or ‘virus’.  Little did we know that the whole world was about to completely change due to an infectious disease known as Coronavirus or COVID-19; a fatal respiratory disease that was spreading worldwide at a high-speed pace. Five months after we found out that we were expecting our first child, towards the end of February 2020, the first death from this disease was announced here in the US. This was the same month that I had received a job offer at a hospital. I was really looking forward to resuming work because I had always wanted to work in a hospital. As I was imagining my dream job, the role was paused due to the rapid spread of the virus. Right afterward, I received another job offer to work in an international airport as a Public Health Advisor (PHA) to help mitigate the spread of Covid-19. However, because I was six months pregnant at that time, my OB-GYN informed me that it was too risky to work in an airport. I made the tough decision to decline the offer. I was already at the end of my second trimester and my health and the health of our baby was a priority.

A month later in March 2020, Covid-19 was declared a pandemic and public health threat. This was due to the growing number of countries that were affected, and its alarming mortality rate. In fact, shortly after it became a worldwide pandemic, the President of the US ordered a nationwide lockdown. I remember being pregnant and suddenly, no longer being able to move around freely. Minus the food industry, most businesses and stores were ordered to close. What we know as ‘Essential Businesses’ were the only ones allowed to continue operating. It was only individuals considered essential workers that were allowed to physically report to work. Many people lost their jobs, especially those who worked in the customer service industries. Due to lack of finance, some stores eventually shut down completely. I learned that some stores also went bankrupt because there were little to no customers patronizing them. This was due to the fact that in order to survive, most individuals and families shopped for groceries in greater quantities than other items. Stores that didn’t sell food items or couldn’t afford to pay their employees eventually shut down their businesses.

Countless people were affected. In order to survive, so many individuals filed for unemployment insurance benefits. Due to the high number of people filing unemployment insurance, the agency couldn’t keep up with the workload. Their work was backlogged. I remember that I and my husband had applied and received a response in the mail stating that we should contact someone to follow up. We made several calls, but we couldn’t reach anyone. Luckily, my husband worked in the transportation industry and was considered an essential worker, so he was able to continue working while I stayed home. At a point, the only safe place for me to visit was my OB-GYN appointments. I managed to be physically present for my appointments because I believed it was better to meet in person to make sure our baby was safe and sound.

Eventually, we began the preparation to welcome our baby. I love shopping online, so I created a baby registry. This occurred after I first did extensive research on what new moms usually need for their babies. Just like every first-time mom, I had also envisioned having a baby-shower. For safety reasons, we decided to have a virtual baby-shower. One of my sisters planned it from Chicago where she lived at the time. On May 16th, 2020 we had the baby-shower on a Zoom platform because most people are familiar with the social app. Forty people were able to call in and share in on our joy and excitement. It was a huge success and a fun and memorable experience. At that time, it was also unsafe to comfortably do a professional maternity photo-shoot. The photography company that we had wanted to use was impacted and had stopped offering services. Due to the fact that we were expecting our first child, we were determined to find someone else who would take my professional pictures. This also meant being open to waiting until the last minute. With that in mind, I was open to improvising as well. We eventually found a professional photographer and par for the course; I had my maternity photo-shoot and virtual baby-shower successfully completed on the same day! Initially, we had hoped to accomplish these tasks two months before my due date of June 13^th, 2020, but Covid-19 changed our whole lives.

Here I was, right after a fairytale wedding, pregnant with our first child in the middle of a pandemic! During first pregnancies, most women usually view themselves as novices. Experiencing this monumental life stage during one of the worst pandemics in the history of this nation added fear and anxiety. However, I was able to stay strong and positive in the midst of chaos. Most importantly, I decided to keep hope alive and stay strong for our unborn child. To help my mental health thrive, I started taking walks as much as possible. One of the grocery stores near my house allowed me to take walks after attending my OB-GYN appointments. I would usually go inside the store and walk around for an hour or more. Also, rather than ordering all of our baby items online, I physically went to the stores I liked and bought some items on our list. This encouraged me to continue moving around rather than remain idle. I was a newlywed and became a first-time mom when the entire world changed, but my joy did not falter. Rather than allow fear to swallow me, I fought to stay alive for the sake of my family and innocent baby who is now a one-year-old today. I wrote my journey through this time to share with him when he gets older, and to remind him and all who read this to always remain hopeful and never give up!