Pandemic 運動s expectant moms in US to embrace home births
Ashley Esposito, 35, is considering giving birth at home to 最小限に減らす her 危険 of 契約ing the new coronavirus
Like many expectant mothers, Gina Conley is nervous. But there is a lot more to worry about these days, with a virulent 突発／発生 圧倒的な hospitals and 納得させるing 妊娠している women to 選ぶ for the 親族 safety of a home birth.
"I won't have to go to a hospital where there are 潜在的に a lot of sick people and staff that have been exposed to the coronavirus," says the 32-year-old from North Carolina.
The pandemic has torn through one country after another, laying waste to economies, roiling public 会・原則s and notching around 400,000 感染s in the 部隊d 明言する／公表するs -- more than 12,000 of them 致命的な.
As hospital 区s become 戦場s in the war against this ぼんやり現れるing 脅し, choosing where to give birth is a quandary many expectant mothers did not 推定する／予想する to have to 直面する.
恐れる of 感染, staff and 麻薬 不足s, and ますます strict 支配するs on 訪問者s are 主要な more and more women to consider shunning hospitals.
But soon-to-be moms must 重さを計る 恐れるs for their newborns an d worries over their own health with the prohibitive cost of having a baby at home.
Conley, who is seven months 妊娠している, said she will 支払う／賃金 more than $4,000 to cover the services associated with a home birth, the largest of which is typically the midwife.
"It's definitely not cheap but having the birth experience that we want, with a lot いっそう少なく 苦悩 -- we felt like it was 価値（がある） it," the fitness coach told AFP.
Home births are considered "out of 網状組織" under many 計画（する）s in the byzantine US health 保険 ecosphere, and couples are rarely lucky enough to be fully covered.
- 'Not an 選択' -
Ashley Esposito, a 35-year-old data specialist from the East Coast port city of Baltimore, 推定する／予想するs to fork out up to $8,000 up 前線.
"支払う／賃金ing all that chunk of money, 特に given the 財政上の 状況／情勢, you know -- there are people from my husband's 職業 who were laid off," Esposito told AFP.
"Nothing is, like, 100 パーセント 保証（人）d."
Esposito has 追加するd her 指名する to a 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of 1,300 people who have 調印するd a 嘆願（書） 勧めるing health 保険会社s in the 明言する／公表する of Maryland to 供給する better ニュース報道 of home births.
Like many soon-to-be moms, she worries about new anti-感染 支配するs 可決する・採択するd by some hospitals that 限界 the number of people who can be in the 配達／演説／出産 room.
"This is our first healthy baby so my husband not 存在 there is not an 選択 for me," said Esposito, who used in vitro fertilization after two miscarriages.
In New York, hospitals had 閉めだした husbands or partners from 配達／演説／出産 rooms until 知事 Andrew Cuomo stepped in last month and 調印するd a 法令 明言する／公表するing no women had to give birth alone.
Jordan Perez, 30, will soon reach 十分な 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 in ホームラン, Alaska, where she decided to have her baby at home.
"I've always 手配中の，お尋ね者 to have a home birth but before the ウイルス happened, my midwife team didn't 申し込む／申し出 home birth," said Perez, who sells cosmetic 製品s.
"I think about a week ago, they said, '承認する, let's go for it. With the ウイルス that's happening, we can make it happen,'" she 追加するd.
With health services を締めるing for worse to come in a 危機 of historic 割合s, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says hospitals remain 安全な places to give birth.
にもかかわらず, midwives are struggling to 対処する with the sudden にわか景気 in 需要・要求する for their 専門的知識 in home births.
Of 概略で 12,000 certified nurse midwives and midwives in America, an 概算の 3,000 practice outside hospitals.
- Zoom 任命s -
"We usually have between four and six (births) per month... and now we are maxed out at eight per month, and we 現実に have 10 in July," said certified nurse midwife Mairi Breen Rothman.
Her practice -- M.A.M.A.S., just outside Washington -- has 雇うd a third midwife, its schedule is 調書をとる／予約するd solid through August, and it has had to turn away 可能性のある （弁護士の）依頼人s.
Midwives are 存在 軍隊d to change the way they work ーするために 妨げる the spread of the ウイルス -- cutting 負かす／撃墜する on house calls, seeing 患者s 経由で online 道具s like Zoom and wearing 直面する masks.
Rothman makes 患者s wait in their car rather than in the waiting room, and asks them to leave behind their personal 所有／入手s before going in for the examination.
"The （弁護士の）依頼人s come to the house and they text us from their car. When the person before them is gone, we tell them that they can come in. They come to the door 経由で the separate 入り口," she said.
After the check-up, when the 患者 leaves, staff wipe 負かす／撃墜する every surface that might have been touched, 同様に as door knobs, light switches, 臨床の 器具／備品 and so on.
"We clean the bathroom. And then we call the next person to come in," Rothman says with a nervous laugh.
Esposito, who 計画（する）s to give birth while watching part of the "Lord of the （犯罪の）一味s" saga, said she will take no 危険s once her child is born into a world that has changed almost 夜通し.
"I'm just going to stay in my 泡 for the most part," she sa id.
"I don't think we're going to have much interaction with people other than, like, Skype."
