Fear about an unknown disease can be overwhelming and stressful as we face uncertain times. You may be worried about finances, your health or the health of your loved ones, job security or juggling parenting while working from home. These are very normal stressors. Our bodies can respond to stress in a variety of ways.
This is a very anxious time for everyone, but imagine having another life that you have been nurturing for the last nine months within you, and now you are about to give birth while facing the risk of contracting a serious and sometimes deadly virus. That is the situation our patients are facing every day with courage and grace.
At Women4Women OBGYN, our physicians, Dr. Anne Marie Reidy and Dr. Allison Warren, and Certified Nurse Midwife Tiffany Golub have been offering advice and reassurance since day 1 about how to navigate this situation. We started implementing enhanced safety protocols the week of March 18, including limiting patient exposure by cancelling non-emergent gynecologic appointments, including routine annual appointments, cancelling elective surgeries before the hospital mandate came out, requiring patients to sanitize their hands on arrival and again on entry to the clinical area, limiting visitors, standardizing more rigorous cleaning protocols, etc. etc. We have only made these policies more comprehensive as the situation has evolved. We have been in communication with our patients via email, text and social media about this and other COVID-19 related items every step of the way. Our patients have repeatedly thanked us for our serious approach to the pandemic. They have told us how safe they feel in our hands.