INSIDE OUR COVID BABY BOOM:
A baby boom is taking place in the Geelong region with a flood of bubs conceived during the coronavirus pandemic. Health reporter TAMARA MCDONALD explores the joy and challenges facing parents welcoming new arrivals during a pandemic.
LYNDAL Dew and Annie Perkins always knew they wanted to start their journey to parenthood in 2020.
What they didn’t know was that it would be complicated by a global pandemic.
The engaged Drysdale couple began their IVF journey with a Melbourne clinic in January last year, as countries around the world became increasingly concerned about coronavirus originating from Wuhan.
“We obviously didn’t know COVID was going to happen,” Ms Dew, 30, said.
Just before Ms Dew was scheduled for an egg collection procedure in March, the government announced a pause on non-urgent elective surgeries.
“We were lucky that we were able to still do that,” Ms Dew said.
An embryo transfer procedure to impregnate Ms Dew was scheduled for April but postponed until May.
“We’ve waited our whole lives to be parents and then … potentially the greatest thing that could ever happen might just be halted at that point where you’re about to do that transfer, it was just like ‘How long are we going to be waiting?’,” Ms Dew said.
Ms Perkins, 29, said the uncertainty was “disappointing”.
Ms Dew felt lucky to be working from home while pregnant during the second wave, although it was “a bit lonely”.
The couple welcomed their first child, son Charlie DewPerkins, in February this year.
Charlie was in special care for the first week of his life due to low blood-sugar levels.
The day after the couple brought Charlie home,
Victoria entered a snap fiveday lockdown.
“It was awful but also a blessing we were able to just spend those five days as a family,” Ms Dew said.
The family is grateful to have had the support of Barwon Health’s Midwifery
Group Practice, which offers continuity of midwifery care to women and their families throughout pregnancy, birth, and weeks post-birth.
The pandemic has been particularly painful for Ms Perkins, who is from the UK and separated from her family.
“It’s just really sad family haven’t been able to meet him and it’s the unknown of when that’s going to happen,” Ms Perkins said. “We’re just living in hope and taking each day as it comes.
“There has been the added stress of how bad the outbreaks have been in the UK. Since my parents got vaccinated, it’s made me feel a bit better.”
Charlie has interacted with relatives from around the world via video calls.
HOSPITALS around the region are seeing births boom in the wake of the pandemic.
Barwon Health had 261 babies born last month, compared with 228 in April 2020. St John of God Geelong Hospital has seen a growth in the number of births of about 20 per cent year on year.
And Epworth Geelong executive general manager Leonie Lloyd said the hospital was experiencing a postlockdown baby boom.
“Maternity bookings were up more than 24 per cent in April compared with April 2020,” Ms Lloyd said.
“We’ve seen a consistent increase in maternity bookings since last July, with births over the last 10 months also up 24 per cent.”
Ms Lloyd said some of the increase would be due to people deciding to have a baby after the lockdown.
Monash IVF Geelong medical director Prue Johnstone said the clinic had definitely seen an increase in patients presenting for fertility treatments over the past 12 months during the pandemic, and the increased demand in services looked to be continuing.
“I think the upheaval the COVID-19 pandemic caused in people’s lives has made many reassess what’s
important to them,” Dr Johnstone said.
“For some, this may be starting or growing their family, and awareness of this has led to the realisation that some need help.
“Some may have a little more income at their disposal due to lack of travel, however on the most part I see it’s mainly the drive to have a family increasing treatment demands above all else.”
Number 1 Fertility Geelong medical director Lynn Burmeister said IVF was easier to do while people were still at least working some of the time at home.
“There’s no hiding injections or appointments from co-workers,” she said.
“It’s offered a bit more privacy for patients going through the process, and often the added support of having their partner at home as well.
“We have seen a significant increase in both IVF and egg freezing patients both during and after the pandemic
lockdowns. For many people, including our Geelong patients, they decided they no longer wanted to wait to have a family.
“Travel or wedding plans were put on hold, and baby plans were brought forward.”
Dr Burmeister said the pandemic showed other patients that the world could be unpredictable and scary.
“It made them re-evaluate their lives and priorities and they decided that now is the right time to try for a baby,” she said.
HAVING a child during unprecedented times comes with added anxieties.
Dr Johnstone said it had been a hard time for many patients.
“It can be confronting to accept the need for assistance to achieve a pregnancy and the fertility treatment journey can be a rollercoaster of emotions,” she said.
“Combining this with stress of COVID-related work and isolation issues means that many of our patients have needed increased support.
“Once pregnant and in the early stages of parenthood, women and couples have faced other challenges — attending important medical appointments without a partner or support person, lockdown uncertainty, separation from family, mothers’ groups over Zoom, to name a few.
“It has certainly been a different and challenging experience for many of our new parents.”
Grovedale couple Lisa and Reuben Dicker were patients of Dr Johnstone and welcomed their long-awaited
first child, daughter Emerson, in February.
After an unsuccessful embryo transfer in February last year and a pause on elective surgery, Mrs Dicker, 39, had a successful transfer in May, 2020.
Mrs Dicker could not have Mr Dicker, 38, accompany her, due to coronavirus restrictions.
“From an emotional perspective, that was really tough,” she said.
Mrs Dicker said the couple unsuccessfully tried to conceive naturally for a year and then spent two years doing IVF before she became pregnant with Emerson.
Being pregnant during the second wave was “terrifying”.
“It takes you so long to get that point and you finally get pregnant … you don’t want to go anywhere,” she said.
“You’re just constantly living in fear.”
Mrs Dicker said assumptions that Emerson was a product of having “nothing better to do” during COVID restrictions were infuriating.
“It was a lot of heartache and a lot of money,” she said.
But welcoming their bundle of joy was a “surreal feeling”.
“The whole process is pretty overwhelming … it took a long time for it to sink in and that she was ours and we’d got to the end point,” she said
“You want something for so long … and it finally happens, you’re obviously ecstatic.”
For Ms Perkins, Ms Dew and their loved ones around the world, the arrival of Charlie has provided hope and joy in a period of global upheaval.
“If it wasn’t for him, I think both of us would have really struggled,” Ms Perkins said.