We ALL need support in these times

by Grace DiRisio…

In the midst of this pandemic, everyone seems to be going through their own shit. Seniors are upset about the end of their Colgate career and the uncertainty of their graduation ceremony; juniors are sad about the end of abroad experiences; students and professors are struggling to adjust to new methods of teaching and learning. Outside of Colgate, people are losing job and loved ones, struggling to pay rent and support families, putting weddings/travel plans/new experiences on hold, feeling lonely and isolated from family and friends; the list goes on and on.

Something I find comforting is that although everyone seems to be going through their own personal struggles, many people are aware of this struggle and reaching out in support. My last week at Colgate, saying I was upset would be a huge understatement. I felt that it didn’t even register that this was my last semester at Colgate, and a couple of emails turned my last few months here to my last few days. I didn’t think this was even a possibility until the morning of 3/11- the morning before the first Colgate email came out about disruptions to campus life after spring break. That morning I was scrolling through twitter and watching schools all over the northeast close. A couple days later we learned that we had to take drastic measures like the rest of the nation- we couldn’t return to classes after spring break for the rest of the semester.

The whole community was devastated, but all week while I was enjoying my last bit of Hamilton so many people would come up to me offering support. Whether it was just recognizing what me and all the seniors were going through, texting me and hoping I was doing ok, offering to buy me my last bagel from flour and salt or a slice, recreating traditions that usually happen at the end of the semester, and even offering me a place to stay when I (hopefully) visit next year. Although I was extremely upset about everything going on, it was so comforting for so many people to reach out and express love and support to me and one another. 

This showed me how powerful the support of one another is and how healing it can be, which is exactly what I thought of when I read this article on maternal health during the current pandemic. The article discussed how overwhelmed hospitals currently are, new practices and policies to keep newborns, mothers, and healthcare workers safe, and the feelings mothers are experiencing while having to give birth in this situation. The precautions hospitals are taking to prevent COVID-19 include: more hospital interventions with the pregnancy (inducing labor so mothers spend less time in the hospital- even though it is challenged in the article whether inducing labor/medical intervention even shortens hospital stay), and less access to support; less people (and sometimes no one) can be in the room with the mother. This forces the mother to pick between having their partner, friends, doulas, other family members, etc. in the room with them. Increased medical intervention and lack of support is, as the article title states, threatening an already strained system.

This stress on the system is going to be especially devastating for women of color, who are at a higher risk of maternal/infant mortality (in the US, black mothers have a 3x higher risk during pregnancy than that of their white counterparts). While reading about strains of hospitals, mothers/families, and this system, the first thought that came to my mind is encouraging home births. Home births would prevent possible exposure to COVID-19 to healthcare workers, free up room in hospitals, lead to less medical intervention overall, and allow mothers to have more options of support from family, friends, midwives, and doulas. Home births are extremely safe in pregnancies that are not high-risk (as shown in the documentary Business of Being Born). In fact, part of the reason the US has such terrible infant and maternal mortality rates/ intervention rates is because of the underuse of midwives/doulas.

In the US, we discount midwifery practices and tend to think doctors are pretty much the only option when it comes to births. Doctors are essential in some births and need to monitor any problems that might occur in a high-risk pregnancy . However, since doctors are trained to look for problems, doctors looking over a healthy pregnancy can sometimes lead to unnecessary medical interventions during this natural process, which can then put a pregnancy at a higher risk. Some doctors still disagree with this (as seen in this article), but countries with much lower maternal/infant mortality statistics rely more on homebirths compared to medicalization/pain management like the US. Of course, we need to be mindful that hospitals are in a very difficult situation and need to do whatever they can to slow down the virus. Still, I think it is important for everyone to recognize how crucial and powerful support can be in all aspects of life, especially during this time. It’s also powerful for everyone to realize that we can all do something to help. Whether it’s spreading knowledge about how to help mothers and all their options for giving birth (knowledge is power ☺), reaching out to anyone who is having a hard time, reaching out to people even if they seem to be doing fine, giving blood and saying thank you to support hospitals and health-care workers for all they are doing, or even socially distancing oneself and practicing good hygiene to help stop the spread. Stay healthy everyone 🙂 !!