(WWJ) – There have been many challenges for women giving birth during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the early days of the coronavirus, two years ago.
Giving birth at this point in the COVID era, however, is a whole lot different than it was in the early weeks and months of the pandemic.
One Metro Detroit woman knows first-hand.
Jen Laubach of Clarkston had to drive herself to Beaumont Hospital Troy in April of 2020 when her water broke unexpectedly, a few weeks before her due date, because she and her husband Andre had both tested positive for COVID-19.
The couple had to be separated from their newborn twin baby boys for nearly three weeks, a story that garnered national headlines in the early days of the pandemic.
Fast forward nearly two years, a vaccinated and boosted Laubach gave birth to a third child – a baby girl, with her husband by her side.
They were two vastly different experiences, Laubach said.
“When I delivered (the twins), they were taken right away to the NICU, and of course we understood that, because I wanted to keep them safe and nobody really knew about COVID at that time and how it would affect them,” she said.
They were eventually able to see the boys after three weeks.
Things were a little more “normal” the second time around.
“To just have a sort of normal experience was very healing for me and we’re just so thankful and so blessed,” Laubach said.
When the omicron variant of COVID-19 began to surge, she admits she was nervous. She thought, “I can’t believe we’re going through this again.”
But doctors eased her mind when they told her she wouldn’t be separated from her newborn baby girl if she were to test positive again.
Her husband says they’re both “lucky and fortunate and blessed” to have a healthy family because “that wasn’t always guaranteed throughout this process.”
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