How moms of young children are coping with a lack of vaccines, lifting of mask and testing restrictions, and overall stress of the pandemic in the DMV.
By Jacqueline Smith
WASHINGTONThe COVID-19 pandemic has posed many challenges to most Americans, but mothers especially have faced uncertainty and isolation.
For many new mothers, giving birth during the pandemic has been an isolating experience. Delivery rooms required masks, traditional baby showers were avoided, and visits from family and friends were limited.
When Stephanie Svec reflects on her pregnancy, she recalls the additional stress and fear created by the pandemic.
Svec, a resident of Northwest DC who works in older adult behavioral health, had to navigate her first pregnancy during the pandemic. She was careful, limiting her outside interactions and religiously masking, but every doctor’s appointment was stressful. She even got sick with COVID during her second trimester in March of 2021, prior to vaccines.
“It was very, very scary. There were just a lot of unknowns,” said Svec. “I was very sick for two weeks solid, but luckily everything turned out okay and she was fine.”
Still, even once her daughter was born, COVID-19 still created difficulties for the new mom. There was no nursery at the hospital, so the baby had to be in the hospital room with her. Svec lost nights of good sleep and the number of visitors allowed were limited.
The pandemic stood between her and normal motherhood. “I wanted to be able to do some group with my baby, like Mommy and Me or like music class or any of these things that would all normally be in person,” Svec said. “But everything was online and I really didn’t see any point in doing that.”
While there was slight coverage on the impacts of the virus on pregnant women, many soon-to-be-mothers struggled with the uncertainty.
Svec did not experience typical symptoms of postpartum depression, but she dealt with slight anxiety caused by the pandemic.
She meets with PACE, an organization for new mothers in the DMV. Her group recently discussed mental health, and several shared that they were looking into therapy and medication options for anxiety rather than depression. While Svec is unsure if this anxiety is COVID-related, she shared that nearly half of the group of nine is seeking treatment of sorts.
PACE began almost 50 years ago in the DC Metro area as a support group hosted in the living room of two first-time mothers with mental health backgrounds and a limited support system. It has since grown into a program that offers eight sessions, with each session presenting mothers with a new topic and information to discuss.
Rachel Fried has worked with PACE for the past seven years as a leader, helping facilitate groups for new moms and second-time moms, and head of communications. Fried has a strong background in social work, working in private practice, community mental health, domestic violence shelters, and child development centers over the years.
“The big thing is having your first baby, even when there’s not a pandemic, is often very isolating and it’s such a role shift,” said Fried. “And then you throw in a global pandemic, and it’s that much more isolating.”
Fried herself used PACE’s program with her firstborn, and she is a mother to a 16-year-old, 13-year-old, and a 10-year-old.
“It’s so different when you have a newborn. Unless they’re sleeping, they need care all the time, right? They’re not going to go play with Legos by themselves. With my mom friends, we would say how grateful we were that we have older kids who could self-entertain sometimes. We didn’t feel like we were on 24/7.”
Last year, PACE remained virtual, but served 60 first-time groups with 10 new mothers in each group and 20 second-time groups with eight to 10 second-time mothers in each group. While the pandemic has shifted the organization’s operations, mothers involved in PACE are in group-chats so they can communicate and have hosted Zoom gatherings to form relationships.
“Anecdotally from talking to my OB, a lot more postpartum depression and anxiety was diagnosed and seen because these women were so isolated. It was so hard to build those relationships, especially during the pandemic,” Fried shared.
PACE provides mothers with a community to get emotional and educational support from fellow mothers.
“I think that the group atmosphere helps normalize what they’re going through. You know, if you have a baby and you don’t talk to anyone else with a newborn, you can feel like ‘I must be the only one with a baby who cries a lot’ or ‘’I must be the only one who doesn’t love every minute of this,’” Fried said. “And then you realize that you have a lot of common experiences with other people, and it’s such a sense of relief, like, ‘I’m okay, my baby’s okay, I can get through this.’”
An analysis by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventionfound that the rate of depression diagnoses at delivery continues to increase, and is seven times higher in 2015 than in 2000. Additionally, CDC research indicates that approximately 1 in 8 women experience postpartum depression symptoms.
According to a 2020 study conducted across 64 countries, a significant number of participants scored at or above the cut-offs for elevated experiences, with 43% experiencing posttraumatic stress, 31% experiencing anxiety or depression, and 53% facing loneliness.
Svec especially endured stress when she learned that her newborn had COVID. Doctors advised Svec to watch her baby’s breathing and wait for a negative test result. While her baby ended up fine, Svec shared that this experience was “unbelievably stressful.”
Svec assumes that her baby carries some antibodies, given the family’s past experiences with the virus, but she still plans to vaccinate her daughter as soon as the FDA approves it.
In the meantime, despite lifting of mask restrictions, Svec continues to wear her mask indoors and avoids bringing her daughter inside unnecessary public enclosed areas. While Svec prioritizes her daughter’s safety, the pandemic has taken away certain aspects of motherhood.
For Jessica Sarkis, parenting during the pandemic has also been “more isolating.” The 40-year-old mom resides in Cathedral Heights with her husband and their four-year-old son, Lewis.
Born in 2017, nearly half of Lewis’ life has been the pandemic. Balancing her full-time job and child while at home during lockdown was especially challenging.
“In the beginning, I tried my best to entertain him with other things besides the television. We did art projects, movement activities, music, podcasts, toys,” said Jessica. “But, you know, with one child home and not having that attention, it didn’t really satisfy him for very long. That was a tough time.”
Lewis had attended a child-care center prior to the pandemic, and newly joined DC Parks and Rec Co-Op in August 2020. This kept Lewis entertained, but it disrupted Jessica’s work day. She adjusted her schedule to pick up and drop off her son, who spent the rest of his day at home after child-care.
Lewis was young when the pandemic started, so Sarkis and her husband did not need to explain too much about the changes. He learned a lot about the new normal through television programs such as Sesame Street and he’s adapted to changes.
Lewis understands the importance of wearing his mask, washing his hands, and giving distance to his preschool classmates in the classroom. Still, Sarkis worries about her son’s safety given the lack of vaccines for children.
“I guess I had considered before having another child and I certainly just couldn’t imagine that now. It’s just too much,” said Sarkis. “It’s been very stressful worrying, especially because the young kids can’t be vaccinated yet.”
Sarkis does plan to vaccinate her son to protect him, but doesn’t feel an urgency. She is slightly hesitant because she’s still uncertain of the vaccine’s effects on children.
Still, Sarkis is eager to resume activities within her family’s comfort zone as transmission levels lower and vaccines grant more safety. The Sarkis family has since gone to the indoor trampoline park and the mall, still wearing masks. Jessica has branched out more as well, meeting with other vaccinated mothers and hosting outdoor playdates.
While Sarkis herself had not experienced postpartum depression during the pandemic, she shared that her coworker has endured stress as a new single parent. Sarkis empathizes for new mothers during the pandemic.
“It’s really caused a lot of upheaval in our lives. And I think now we’re kind of used to it, we’ve adapted and just kind of accepted it, but I think life would’ve really been different these last two years if it wasn’t for that.”
Still, Sarkis would not have changed her approach to dealing with the stress of the pandemic. She thinks that she might have been overly cautious at times, but she is grateful for her safe and healthy family today.
“Really, it’s like you either stop the planning of your life or you keep going. So, you have those two choices and it’s a hard one to make.”