What it’s like being pregnant -- and due soon -- amid coronavirus outbreak

Elective surgeries are being postponed at some hospitals across LA, as health care professionals are expecting an influx of coronavirus patients. But what about patients who aren’t sick from COVID-19, but still need to go to the hospital?

For example, childbirth is something you can’t postpone. When the baby comes, the baby comes.

Leah Thomasson’s second baby is due this Friday. The Culver City resident tells KCRW that she and her husband knew for a while where they’d deliver the baby and what to expect. However, things changed within the last few days.

“Things are changing so quickly with what to expect. … We’re really, you know, just trying to stay positive, stay vigilant,” she says.

Is she scared of going to a hospital that’s treating coronavirus patients? “I'm not. I'm really trying to focus on the advice of my physician. … Certainly anxieties are heightened right now, but I'm trying to trust the hospital and the precautions that they are taking,” Thomasson says.

What is her hospital doing to mitigate risk?

She explains that the labor and delivery wing is on its separate floor, and elective procedures are limited.

“They're limiting who enters the labor and delivery wing from other areas of the hospital. I know that they will be limiting the visitors that we're allowed to have,” she says. “But we are planning to not have any visitors at the hospital.”

She says she had hoped her 2-year-old daughter could meet her new baby brother at the hospital, but now they’ll wait until he comes home. The same goes for friends and other family members who want to see the baby. “They will do that at our house under extreme caution and precaution,” she says.

--Written by Amy Ta and Rosalie Atkinson; produced by Rosalie Atkinson