News — BIRTH
Feature News: The Mom Who Gave Birth While Intubated With Covid-19
When two lives are at stake and it involves a baby and a mother, the tendency is for the mother to want her baby saved over her life. Monique Jones took that bittersweet decision in early September when she was intubated, and her baby girl’s life hung in the balance. The nurse who walked her through the process is now a godmother to her patient’s child.
Jones was brought in when she reported having shortness of breath and some chills. She did not link it to the novel coronavirus because she is one person who adheres to all the safety protocols.
She washes her hands regularly, uses a face mask and stays indoors except when she needs to pick up groceries from the supermarket. Sadly, according to Good Morning America (GMA), the mother of two tested positive for COVID-19 while she was pregnant.
An adamant Jones did not want to be placed on a ventilator, neither did she want to have a C-section performed on her. “It was possible that I wouldn’t live — that’s all I was thinking,” said Jones. “They asked me if it was possible to take my baby out. At first, I told them no, but I wasn’t getting any better.”
Jones was scared but her nurse, Caitlyn Obrock, gave her the assurance that all will be well with them especially her baby if she gives them the go-ahead. “She was scared,” nurse Obrock recalled to GMA. “I was very invested in her, hoping and praying for a good outcome.”
Doctors at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis had to perform the early C-section to save her daughter, Zamyrah Prewitt’s life. Baby Prewitt arrived on September 28, weighing 2 pounds, 5 ounces at 29 weeks and was immediately rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit where she spent the first two months of her life, WVLT reported.
The new mother was moved in October after she woke up from her intubation to a rehab clinic to work on her occupational, speech and physical therapy. As Jones was working hard to get better for the much-awaited reunion with her baby before Christmas, Obrock raised $2000 in gifts for the family and organized a baby shower for her because she empathized with her.
“The way she started out motherhood with this baby was unfair and we wanted her to know how special and loved she is,” Obrock said. “She’s a miracle,” she added. “Her and her baby.”
A Christmas miracle did happen and Jones and Zamyrah were home in time for Christmas. According to Jones, she made it out of the hospital because she felt as though she was fighting for her family and not herself.
She is grateful to her nuclear family for standing by her through it all and even more appreciative of Obrock for the extra love shown her. Right after getting home, Jones asked her nurse to be her baby’s godmother and invited her to join her extended family, People reported.
