Big Bang Theory star Melissa Rauch has revealed she gave birth to her son in hospital while her husband looked on via FaceTime from their home.
She has detailed what it was like giving birth during the current coronavirus pandemic, explaining her husband stayed home to look after their two-year-old daughter Sadie, while she went to hospital on her own.
Melissa, who played Bernadette on Big Bang Theory, announced the birth of her son Brooks on Instagram, saying he was, ‘welcomed into the world and directly into our hearts’.
“Words can’t describe how grateful I am to have this baby boy join our family, but to say that it is a surreal time to be bringing life into the world is an understatement,” she added.
In an article she penned for Glamour, Melissa said she never thought she’d be giving birth during a pandemic.
“Although the hospital I was delivering at did allow birth partners, my husband had to stay home with our daughter since our original plan of having family come to town—as well as our backup plans—were no longer options due to COVID-19,” she explained.
She admits she was worried and anxious leading up to the birth.
“I had been so fearful of how this would all go down. I’d had good days where I’d felt optimistic—’I can do this!’—and other days of complete ‘What kind of fresh hell are we living in?!’ panic. The anxiety over giving birth without an advocate and support system in tow, compounded with the exposure concerns of walking into a hospital during a pandemic, were a lot to process. So I tried my best to prepare for a scenario I never thought I’d face: filling my hospital bag with disinfecting wipes and practicing labor breathing in a mask like I was training for a dystopian marathon.”
Melissa says she did crave physical comfort from her husband as she gave birth to their son.
“But here’s the great thing I realised about birth,” she explained. “It is never going to take a backseat to anything. No matter what is going down, when one human is coming out of another human it becomes the main focus—there’s no other choice. No pandemic, or fear of being alone, or anger over not having a partner there to bitch-slap through the whole hellish gauntlet of labour gets airtime. I had a job to do. The nurses, the doctor, and my husband (who joined on FaceTime to see the birth of our son) ultimately made me feel safe and protected.”
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Melissa hopes that sharing her unique birth story will help her fellow ‘pandemamamas’ who are yet to give birth.
“I’m writing this because I spent countless hours leading up to my labour anticipating what birthing in the time of COVID-19 would look like. And I know other expectant mothers are feeling the same, whether you will be able to have your partner with you or not. So, to them, I’d like to say that it’s okay to grieve how you thought things would be. I had such feelings of guilt that I should just be grateful for a healthy pregnancy rather than focus on the less than ideal situation surrounding it. But those two feelings aren’t mutually exclusive—you can be thankful to be on the verge of having a baby and pissed that you have to deal with this unfair shit show.
“Although none of us has a crystal ball to predict how our children will be brought into this surreal world, there are some things I do know. Namely, you are stronger than you think—more than you ever imagined possible. And also my perineum hurts the same excruciating amount that it did after my last birth. So the good news is that some things about birthing are exactly the same, pandemic or not.
“You are not alone. All of us ‘pandemamamas’, as I like to call us, are in this together. Just as I reminded myself, you can do this, you will do this, and you will do so with the fierceness of all the powerful warrior women before you who have brought life—and hope—into this world during the most unfathomable of times. As I look into my son’s eyes, I am filled with that hope. And dreams of dropping him at the mall, where, if he so desires, I will happily park as far away as possible.”
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