New mum's lockdown delivery 'I'M TOO SCARED TO HAVE ANOTHER BABY'

Giving birth in Covid times took her anxiety to a frightening new level

- Fleur Guthrie

In March 2020, when I Kiwis woke up to the first day of level four lockdown, pregnant Brittany McNabb woke up to contractions.

But any excitement of meeting her firstborn was overshadowed by the prospect of giving birth - an anxious time for any new mum during an unprecedented "climate of fear".

Sharing her story in the hope other mums might feel less alone in their similar experiences, the 27-year-old says she is still working through the trauma following her labour.

"Honestly, of all the pandemic mandates, the restriction surrounding birth could be the one so deeply traumatising that it could cascade a lifetime of effects for both babies and mothers," Brittany tells the Weekly from her Auckland home. "And I don't use the word 'traumatising' lightly."

Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, Brittany had only positive feelings surrounding the labour, but leading up to her due date, there was so much uncertainty as infections ramped up and hospital rules were changing daily.

"There were whispers that they were going to completely op part ers from coming into the hospital during birth. And the thought of that petrified me," says the young mum. "I was begging my obstetrician to induce me two weeks early as I was already quite distressed.

"The Auckland DHB had set a blanket rule though that there were to be no elective surgeries and inductions were classified as elective. So I was just hoping I'd go into labour before we went into lockdown."