The Covid-19 pandemic changed the way society operates in many ways. For new and expectant mothers, however, it also changed the way they experienced pregnancy, birth and motherhood.
Natashja Hayes was around four months pregnant when lockdown began and all her plans were put on hold.
“I really felt alone and had no idea how I was going to care for a newborn,” Hayes says. “Prenatal classes [were] cancelled and the journey I thought I was going to have with my friends ended up being a journey mostly taken alone.”
Natashja Hayes (Image supplied)
Even Hayes’s 20-week scan was cancelled. For her next visit she had to go alone and leave all her belongings outside, including her phone, with which she wanted to take videos of the scan for her husband, she says.