A mother’s story of giving birth while COVID positive

Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | May 23

When 32-year-old expectant mother Ruokuotuonuo Kense developed a cough in her third trimester of pregnancy, with barely a week left for delivery, she was hoping against hope that it would not be a symptom of COVID-19. She had diligently followed every public health advice. “Since I was due, we were very careful with everything,” she told The Morung Express.

However, her worst fears came true when she tested positive for COVID-19 on April 27, just a few days before she was set to give birth to her second child. “I was so heartbroken when I learnt that my doctor cannot be there for my delivery because of the protocol,” she shared. Kense was earlier being treated at Putuonuo Nursing Home in Kohima and would now have to be treated in the Isolation Ward at Naga Hospital Authority Kohima (NHAK).

With nobody to take care of her 6-year-old son at home (who also tested positive along with her husband), she was not admitted to the Isolation Ward on request. However, they had to make at least 3 visits to the hospital in less than a week. In the early hours of May 2, she delivered a baby daughter at around 4:15 am. “But they did not let us meet her. I just saw her from many feet apart,” she said.

Kense recalled that on the morning of May 1, they had gone to the hospital since she started having contractions. However, it stopped after reaching the hospital and they had to come back home. Later at midnight, the contractions started again but she did not want to wake her husband up. “By 2:30 am, the contractions were really close and we called the nurse in the isolation ward. We reached the hospital around 4:00 am and as soon I reached the labour room, I delivered,” she recalled.

The newborn was meanwhile being taken care of by her sister and her husband’s cousin, one after the other, for a period of one week.

Ruokuotuonuo Kense met her daughter for the first time a week after she was born. “After all our test results showed negative, we sanitized the whole house, and we got our 8-day-old daughter back home”, she said.

The whole ordeal, Kense stated, had taught her life changing lessons. “I cannot give credit to anybody but God. Nobody could have done anything for us. No amount of money, or people, even if they are so concerned about us, whatever it is, without God’s grace, we could not have made it.”

“It is also a lesson for my husband and me, and my family as a whole because when things go too smoothly in life, we tend to forget the grace of God,” she said. 

During her delivery process, she was worried about complication as there was only one nurse attending to her. “What will we do if something happens? What if my baby comes in distress? I was really concerned because there was no facility, and I was delivering in the middle of the night,” she stated.

“We left our 6-year old son alone that night. We had put him to sleep and already mentioned we might have to leave at night, and might not be there when he wakes up in the morning…this time, whatever happened, we saw the grace of God,” Kense said.

While on their road to recovery, she said their relatives had been cooking meals for them. “We are so grateful to everybody,” she said appreciating the overwhelming love and support they received from everybody was. 

“We realized how much a little help—maybe just one meal for one person—makes a lot of difference in the other person’s life,” she noted.