The naked truth about a pandemic pregnancy

By Maria Birch

September 30, 2020

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I have a dilemma. To date, I’ve shared very little of my pandemic pregnancy and birth story.

Although there were lots of positive moments, there were also some dark days.

I really want to share the naked truth with you, but I’m cautious about lifting the veil.

There are two reasons why:

  1. I don’t want to scare you. Everyone’s experience of pregnancy and birth is completely different. If something negative happened to me, it doesn’t mean it will happen to you. But I could very easily—even if accidentally—give that impression.
  2. I’m a glass-half-full kinda person and I believe that our reaction to circumstance is much more important—and carries much more weight over our happiness—than circumstance itself.

To make a short story long, I’ve been trying to figure out how to share my experience without hiding the truth… but also… without worrying you.

Ok, that makes it sound like a horror story!

It wasn’t, I promise!

But there were certainly three, four or five days that I wouldn’t want to live again.

And I want to tell you about it.

But only in a way that will help you…

Not hinder you.

I believe it was Rudyard Kipling, schooled in Westward Ho!, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and writer of The Jungle Book, who said:

“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”

If you’ve spent any length of time on Bookface, you’ll know what I mean.

Careless words can be like a dagger to the heart.

But words can also be empowering.

Anyways, I digress.

The point is: I plan to share my story with you. Told well, I think it will help you and other parents like you.

Not because it’s my story, though.

Simply because it’s nice to know that other people have been through the same thing we’re going through.

And there may even be some golden nuggets in the story that help you take a few strong steps forward on your own journey.

And on that note…

I had a lightbulb moment last night!

As you know, after Boris Johnson’s speech, everything changed in a flash.

With a super-virus to contend with and limited in-person support services…

We’ve all had to get creative and figure out our own ways to make it through pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and more.

Thankfully, there are now lots of options—Facebook groups and even the return of some in-person classes.

But there is no single community where mums and dads can share and guide each other.

That’s my vision for the support club.

And last night I figured…

What better way to kick-start the community than to share our stories with each other?

You, like lots of other women, have either been pregnant and/or given birth during a pandemic, for heaven’s sake!

Who else, in the last several decades, has had to go through that?

You are bound… BOUND… to have a fascinating story to tell.

And within that story, I suspect (whether you realise it or not), are some gems of wisdom—little tricks and bits and pieces you’ve discovered along the way—that could make the world of difference to other women.

So…

This will mark the beginning of the support club/community (yet to be named).

I’d like to speak to at least 15 women like you about their experience and, with permission, share it with everyone who “joins the club.”

It won’t be at all formal. I’m thinking, cuppa’ tea and a biscuit sat on the sofa in the clinic.

I’ll have to record it, of course, but I’ll just stick my phone on the side—very caz-ual.

Selfishly, I’m really excited about this because it gives me an excuse to meet up with some of the lovely ladies I’ve had the pleasure of scanning and have a chin-wag. And…

Meet some new parents and make some new friends!

Ok…

Enough chitter-chatter 🙂

If would like to meet for a “fireside chat” (minus the fire, I’m afraid) and share your story, you can choose one of the following gifts as a thank you:

  1. 6-month subscription to the support club
  2. A free scan (can be redeemed in a future pregnancy or gifted to a friend)

I’d like to meet up ASAP so we can get the community moving and shaking.

If this sounds fun, please reply and let me know, and we can get something in the diary 🙂

If there’s a big response, I may not be able to speak to everyone, but I’ll meet as many ladies as time allows!

Maria x

UPDATE: This is now closed. For up-to-date information on private pregnancy scans at Sneak-A-Peek Ultrasound, start here: https://sneak-a-peek-ultrasound.co.uk