Nine Months Pregnant During a Public Health Crisis
Some contingencies you just can’t plan for
A message comes in, bright and cheery: Get a hands-free phone mount for your car! 40% off, today only!
Another, without time for a context shift: Schools are closed until the end of the month. Please take all necessary precautions.
Numbers flash across the screen: Only a hundred infected, out of millions. Stop being so dramatic.
Photos, though: Empty supermarket shelves. When will they be restocked?
Mixed messages everywhere: Go about life as normal. But nothing about this is normal.
Meanwhile, I shift in my seat, dislodging the baby’s heel from my rib cage. My belly tightens, then relaxes. Today? Could be today. Could be three weeks from now.
What will the world look like three weeks from now?
I hadn’t much considered the question until I heard from my doula that the hospital was limiting support people to one per laboring mother. I could have my husband or my doula with me in the delivery room. But not both.
It’s a problem because I have a paid contract with my doula. Because I have been bullied into unnecessary and unwanted interventions during…
