A motherload of babies
What do these families have in common?
Phoebe Tomlinson could never have predicted her second birth would take place during a global crisis.
One minute after New Zealand entered alert level 4 lockdown at 11.59pm on March 25 she was induced. And two hours later Tomlinson gave birth to son Malachai Tomlinson-Papuni – the first child to be born in Taranaki during lockdown. ‘‘It was definitely not the way I planned the birth to be,’’ she laughed.
There were 158 births at Taranaki Base Hospital in New Plymouth and nine at Ha¯ wera Hospital during alert level 4 and 3, from March 26 to May 13.
Tomlinson joined about 50 parents and their babies, who were born during lockdown, at the Puke Ariki Landing last week for a special souvenir photo.
There was chatter among parents, who discussed their unusual birthing experiences.
‘‘I think the biggest difference for me was the number of people you were allowed in the room,’’ Tomlinson said. ‘‘That’s probably what I struggled with the most, the lack of support.’’
She only had a friend and a midwife in the delivery room for support, while more family and friends were on video chat.
She interacted with a small number of nurses and described the ward as a ‘‘ghost town’’ as patients were only allowed to use the bathroom. But Tomlinson praised how Taranaki Base Hospital handled the challenging time.
‘‘I was pretty happy with the care the hospital gave me.’’
First-time dad Marc Bridgeman, welcomed his little girl, Audrey, on April 15 in an unplanned home birth.
‘‘We went into labour a day early in the middle of the night, it took about seven hours,’’ he said.
All that was going through his mind was keeping wife Laura comfortable and safe.
The pair added two midwifes and his mother-in-law into their bubble, and the extra support was what helped the couple push through.
‘‘It was scary but we did what we had to do,’’ he said.
For Justine Butler, the birth of her now 11-week-old twins, Ted and Alf, could not have been more hectic. They were born premature at 32 weeks after an emergency c-section and spent six weeks in the neonatal unit.
‘‘On the first day of lockdown we went for a scan in the morning and they told me I was going to have an emergency c-section in the afternoon.’’
But she was impressed with the way the neonatal unit supported her during a very different birth experience.
‘‘The nurses in neonatal were great. They were awesome and during that time were like our second family, because our bubble did not include our family.’’