This morning, when I was cleaning my bathroom I found a condom wrapper inside a water bottle. I looked around but didn’t see anyone else in the house so I thought it wasn’t worth taking a chance. What I didn’t know was that the condom wrapper had tested positive for covid and I was able to test negative for the virus.
Now that Covid is officially a worldwide emergency, this has become a very real possibility. We’re seeing many cases where families are tested for covid before a pregnancy. The good news is the chance of contracting the virus from a pregnant woman is significantly lower than it was before. This is because pregnant women no longer need to wear a mask as much, thus less chance of the virus being transferred to the fetus.
Now of course, pregnant women are being encouraged to come into contact with other people who may carry the virus, but this is also the case for those who may be in contact with the pregnant woman. When you’re pregnant, you’re also likely to be more likely to contract Covid, so I would not rule out any chance of contracting it from my partner.
This is because pregnant women are typically exposed to a lot more people carrying the virus (like the other people who test positive during labor, or those who are around her when shes tested positive), and they are at higher risk of contracting it. While the majority of cases of coronavirus are thought to be in the USA, there have been cases in Europe, and the Netherlands is now seeing a rise.
There are still some unknowns about when the spread of the virus, like which age groups are most likely to contract it, where it’s most likely to run and what kind of symptoms it has. The majority of the population has been advised to stay at home to prevent the spread of coronavirus, but it should be noted that this is not a blanket ban.
But the majority of the population is not advised to stay at home, but to not get tested. There are some exceptions to this, such as older adults over the age of 65 and people with pre-existing medical conditions, such as diabetes and asthma. So the question is, if you test negative for covid, will you be allowed to give birth to your child? The answer is, it depends.
But to be clear, there are no restrictions on people giving birth at home. However, it is recommended that you not deliver at home until after the spread of COVID-19 has stopped.
In the UK, where we live, the law is that you may not give birth at home, but you can go to a clinic to give birth. But even then, you must wait at least 14 days after your last day of work to be allowed to have a home delivery. So you can’t expect the same experience as the rest of us, but if you’re feeling particularly exhausted, this may be a good time to take a quick nap before you give birth.
That’s why I love this video from the UK’s NHS Choices website. It shows a woman in labor giving birth in her flat. As you can see, she’s doing her best to relax, because she’s exhausted and she’s not getting any help from her boyfriend. But then I see her putting her phone down, and it dawns on me that she’s in a home delivery.
I know I should be more concerned about the state of the world, but I’m not. The fact that this woman is in a room with her own newborn baby and has to be in a room with someone else with a newborn baby is totally normal. The fact that she is in a room with a woman who cannot even get out of bed to give birth is just as normal. We all need to be able to relax.