The birth of San Antonio’s first baby of 2021 was a spark of wonder and joy, shining through a crisis.
After midnight, Cheryse Williams began pushing in the labor and delivery department at North Central Baptist Hospital. Less than an hour later — at 12:53 a.m. — she gave birth to a baby boy. Khario Deyvan Moore weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces and measured 19 inches.
As night became morning, Williams couldn’t sleep. She was unable to stop marveling at her son.
Nine hours earlier, San Antonio hospital leaders had issued an ominous letter, begging residents to help reduce transmission of the coronavirus. They described hanging on the edge of a precipice: With more than 1,100 people hospitalized with COVID-19 across the city as of Wednesday, this surge was on pace to become worse than the one that pummeled San Antonio over the summer. If area hospitals became overrun with patients, they warned, medical care would suffer.
On ExpressNews.com: Birth in the time of coronavirus
It was amid that chaos that Williams, a first-time mother, and her partner, Martel Moore, drove to the hospital on New Year’s Eve. It made Williams all the more thankful for a healthy delivery.
“It was still a beautiful experience,” Williams, a 25-year-old interior designer, said by phone. “It’s not the ideal way that everyone plans it to be. But it’s not the worst thing in the world because the reward was much more appreciated.”
Throughout her pregnancy, Williams had to move through the world with caution. By the time she found out she was pregnant, the pandemic was already in full swing, and it colored every step along the way.
Williams “social distanced the whole nine months.” There were no baby showers, no visits from friends and extended family members. To keep herself safe, she worked from home and saw few people other than her parents, who were frequently tested for the virus.
“A lot of things did not go as you dream,” Williams said. “Things were weird. It just felt out of place.”
Such precautions became ever more urgent as evidence emerged that pregnant women were at higher risk of suffering severe complications from COVID-19 and problems with their pregnancies.
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Before her prenatal visits, Williams underwent temperature checks and symptom screenings. The only appointments Moore was allowed to attend were the few that involved ultrasounds, a rule that made him feel “involved from a distance,” Williams said.
As the pandemic dragged on, Williams’ research on where to give birth had to account for COVID-19 precautions and protocols. She eventually landed on North Central Baptist, which delivers a high volume of babies each year. She felt comfortable with the hospital’s physical layout and its process for separating expectant mothers from other patients.
During the pandemic, many hospitals restricted visitation, typically allowing just one or two people in to support laboring mothers. In rare cases, fathers were not allowed inside hospitals at all, instead observing births through windows or over video calls.
In Williams’ case, she was allowed one support person: Moore. When they arrived at the hospital around 8 a.m. Thursday, several hours after her water broke, both were tested for the virus. Moore manned the camera, holding a phone up so Williams’ mother and sister could observe the delivery.
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Williams had wanted her mother to be at her side.
“It was hard. She’s on FaceTime, trying to see what’s going on. It is upsetting, I’m not even going to lie,” Williams said. “I do wish she was there. But she was still there in spirit, and at least on a screen.”
Shortly after the delivery, Williams heard applause from the hallway. She figured hospital staff was celebrating another birth. She was shocked when they told her she had delivered San Antonio’s first baby of the new year, nearly an hour after 2021 began. In 2019 and 2020, the city’s first baby of the year was born at the stroke of midnight.
Although it was scary to give birth under such circumstances, Williams encouraged other expecting parents to not let themselves become consumed by discouragement or fear.
In the end, she said, it was all worth it.
lcaruba@express-news.net
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January 02, 2021 at 07:35AM
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‘It was still a beautiful experience’: San Antonio’s first baby of 2021 a spark of joy amid coronavirus crisis - San Antonio Express-News
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