Providers and staff are feeling the strain more than ever this week. During this stressful and intense time, the Women’s Mental Health @Ob/Gyn team begins offering virtual support groups for members of the department. On our daily department calls, celebrity guests, including Bette Midler, Liam Neeson, and Padma Lakshmi, begin to join to express their gratitude for our essential workers and offer much-needed cheer through songs, poetry, and cooking demonstrations. Meanwhile, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issues an executive order requiring NewYork-Presbyterian to allow one support person for each woman in labor.
This crisis highlights the inequities in society. How can a patient with COVID-19 isolate and keep their family safe, living in a single room with five other people? How can hourly workers help flatten the curve when staying home means loss of income or unemployment? How will some of our patients survive in the face of chronic disease, limited access to care, and minimal support? There are many ways to be brave right now. Some of us are on the front lines, caring for the sickest of us, putting themselves at risk. Others give up things they hold dear, like time with friends and family, sleep, and even jobs, for the greater good. Some are just “keeping it moving” while carrying hidden burdens. May we all find our own ways to be brave.
I attend the birth of a beautiful baby girl. The patient does not have anyone with her, but she FaceTimes her family so three generations are able to cheer for her as she pushes, and everyone sees the baby as I place her on her mother’s chest. I tell her I am sorry that she had to labor and deliver alone. The new mother shakes her head, smiles, and says, “It’s OK. I was OK. God is here.”
Dara Matseoane-Peterssen, MD, MPH, Director, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons Ob/Gyn Clerkship
March 30
Visitors readmitted to Labor and Delivery: NewYork-Presbyterian complies with the governor’s executive order as of Monday, March 30, emphasizing in a statement, “Our highest priority continues to be the safety and well-being of our patients, their families, and our staff.”
April 1
Wendy Rose, our Care Coordinator at the Mothers Center, which manages our most medically complex pregnant patients, gives birth to her first child, a daughter named Molly.
National stockpile of PPE is reported to be almost completely depleted.
The Women’s Mental Health @Ob/Gyn division begins offering virtual support groups via Zoom to members of the department.
April 2
Weekly jobless claims hit a new high as Americans lose 10 million jobs.
April 3
CDC recommends the use of face masks in public.
While there is no proven medicine or vaccine for COVID-19, I can report with firsthand knowledge that love and support are enormously helpful when sick with this virus. Words and attention can truly heal. Themes of this pandemic seem to include physical isolation and loneliness, but at the same time this experience allows us to reaffirm the great importance of colleagues, family, and friends.
Isolated for the last 18 days in a sunroom that was never meant to be a bedroom, I have discovered that I enjoy watching the trees, the grass, and the occasional squirrel run by the large glass door. But today, I’m focused on something else. My younger daughter is alone on the other side of the window, playing on a pogo stick. I haven’t hugged her or her sister in over two weeks. She sees me through the window, and she smiles and waves. Knowing that she has my undivided attention, she tries to do the Macarena while bouncing on her pogo stick. She almost pulls it off, but stumbles a bit before quickly getting right back on her feet, and we both start laughing from opposite sides of the glass. And in that moment, I believe that everything is going to be okay.
Russ Miller, MD, Director of the Carmen and John Thain Center for Prenatal Pediatrics and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at NYP/CUIMC