I am lucky enough to be friends with quite a few nurses who are working extremely hard on the COVID-19 response in their respective departments and hospitals. I reached out to each of them and simply asked: “Is there anything as a nurse, you wish people knew, or think they need to know about COVID-19?”

In honor of black maternal health week, here is the second post in this mini series.

“So I’m on the labor and delivery aspect of the crisis. This is impacting more of our census numbers (number of deliveries for the month of March and April). With that being said, we have seen a couple of pregnant COVID patients and rule outs over the last couple of weeks.”

“This pandemic has completely changed the support element of our practice. We can only have one visitor at bedside with any of our admissions, no children are allowed in the hospital, and we as labor nurses still have to be careful with how close and protected we are with our patients because we are still having some close calls with late COVID diagnoses. There are women who are terrified to come to the hospital for anything right now because they know they may not get to see their families for 14 days after being exposed to the hospital atmosphere. Or they won’t be able to have their support person there with them because they are immunocompromised or have to take care of their other family members. That being said, we want the maternal community to know we hear you, we see, and we are there for you. Labor is such an emotional experience and we are always there to help support our patients during this time. We become your family the minute you step foot through those doors. This season is scary and ambiguous for us too. But we were trained to not only to physically care for you and your future family, but also support/cheer you on through the entire process.”

– Krysten J.

If you would like to donate and help the COVID-19 response in the state of Georgia, check out the links below.

• Emory Healthcare Donation: https://www.emoryhealthcare.org/covid/how-to-help.html
• Georgia Department of Public Health Volunteer: https://dph.georgia.gov/press-releases/2020-03-24/volunteer-covid-19-response Current/Former Medical Professionals Only
• Giving Kitchen COVID-19 Fund for Food Service Workers: https://thegivingkitchen.org/covid19
• Greater Atlanta COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/united-way-of-greater-atlanta-inc/covid-19-relief-fund
• Health Connect South Donation: https://healthconnectsouth.com/#1585830693598-6c730980-f079
• Open Hand Atlanta: https://openhandatlanta.org/covid19/