Mother knows best
Ruthie Nielsen battled Covid while seven months pregnant. She tells Hannah Martin she’s urging Ma¯ori to get vaccinated.
Ruthie Nielsen battled Covid pneumonia in quarantine while seven months pregnant, praying for her unborn child and fearful for her two toddlers exposed to the virus. Now the proud mum of sixmonth-old Hope is urging Māori to get vaccinated.
In a hospital bed in an air-sealed isolation room, lungs filled with fluid caused by pneumonia from Covid-19, Ruthie Nielsen prayed for her unborn baby.
In September, the West Auckland woman and 17 members of her extended wha¯nau contracted Covid-19 after attending a tangi.
She understands she was the first hapu¯ (pregnant) mother at the Jet Park quarantine facility, where she spent 34 days while seven months pregnant.
The 31-year-old is speaking out as part of a campaign to remind people Covid-19 ‘‘is real, it’s hard – and there is a way you can be safeguarded against that’’.
After Nielsen attended a 100-person tangi, people started getting sick and urged each other to get tested.
Nielsen (Nga¯ puhi) went with her husband Hans to a local testing centre to support him. She wasn’t going to get tested because he had been around the wha¯ nau more than she had, but she decided to get swabbed while in the car.
The texts to say people tested negative started rolling in to Nielsen’s family members that same night – but hers didn’t come.
Sitting around the dinner table, her phone lit up with a call from the public health service – a number she knew well, given her work in Ma¯ ori public health, in the tobacco advocacy team at Ha¯pai te Hauora.
‘‘I knew straight away it was them calling.’’
Shock set in looking at her kids, then aged 4 and 1, running around the house, as she thought: ‘‘Oh gosh, they’ve been
‘‘Covid is real, it’s hard – and there is a way you can be safeguarded against that.’’
Ruthie Nielsen
exposed’’.
For the first few days, she’d had no symptoms other than tiredness – which she’d put down to being heavily pregnant.
Then the ‘‘non-stop hot-and-cold sweats’’ struck.
Nielsen was rushed to Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland twice because of Covid, first when the baby stopped moving – and there was no equipment to help her at Jet Park – and later for a seven-day stint when she developed pneumonia.
Stuck in an isolation room away from her husband and children, and hooked up to oxygen 24/7, was ‘‘challenging’’.
‘‘Just walking the five steps to the bathroom winded me,’’ she said.
Nielsen racked up 34 days at Jet Park, as the 14-day clock reset each time another member of their bubble tested positive.
On day 34, Nielsen’s niece, who lives with her, returned home having tested negative during her time at Jet Park, only to test positive.
They were permitted to do a further 14 days’ isolation at their Kelston home, under the close eye of security. All made a full recovery, but it was a hard road.
Today, Te Puni Ko¯ kiri (the Ministry of
Ma¯ ori Development), in collaboration with the Health Promotion Agency, Ministry of Health and Unite Against Covid-19, is launching a national Ma¯ori communications campaign to support the vaccine rollout.
‘‘‘‘Karawhiua’’ – which means ‘‘Give it heaps! Go for it!’’ – uses stories from Ma¯ ori impacted by Covid-19, including Nielsen, in a bid to motivate more than 500,000 Ma¯ ori to get vaccinated this year.
Research conducted by the Ministry of Health in February showed 41 per cent of Ma¯ori needed more information on the vaccine, and 30 per cent did not understand the vaccine would be free.
Surveys consistently show Ma¯ ori are less likely to get the Covid-19 vaccine than non-Ma¯ ori.
Nielsen said she understood there was trepidation and fear about the vaccine, but was sharing her story ‘‘in the hope no-one else ever has to go through what we went through’’.
Public health doctor and senior lecturer in medical education at the University of Auckland Dr Mataroria Lyndon (Nga¯ti Hine, Nga¯ ti Wha¯ tua, Waikato, Nga¯ ti Toa) said the campaign sought to raise awareness and encourage Ma¯ori to be vaccinated.
Lyndon, who has received both doses of the vaccine, said helping people understand the process involved, and highlighting that the vaccine is safe and effective, was crucial.
The vaccine, alongside using the Covid Tracer app and getting tested when you have symptoms, is ‘‘another tool in our kete’’, he said.
Lyndon said there was a drive to get high vaccine uptake among Ma¯ori and Pacific Island populations because they are more at risk of Covid-19 – including increased risk of severe illness and death.
There was a ‘‘whole host’’ of reasons for this, including the high prevalence of chronic conditions, housing insecurity and intergenerational living.
The launch of the campaign coincides with Mother’s Day, which holds a special significance for Nielsen this year.
Her daughter Hope, now six months old, was born happy and healthy after a ‘‘tumultuous time’’.
She was named for the fact ‘‘we really had no hope at the time’’.
A baby was recently born with Covid-19 antibodies in the United States after her mum was vaccinated during pregnancy.
Nielsen said she hadn’t been followed up with since Hope’s birth about such testing.
The overall risk of Covid-19 to pregnant women is low. However, pregnancy increases the risk for severe illness and death with Covid-19, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Of the 2613 confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand to April 29, 30 were pregnant women who tested positive, a ministry spokesperson said. Of those, 13 were in community cases – 11 completed isolation at home, and two – including Nielsen – were in MIQ.
Nielsen said the family lived differently after their brush with Covid-19, and were more grateful for time they spend with wha¯ nau: ‘‘It can be taken away from you in one day.’’