A Seattle mom's story: Welcoming a new baby after testing positive for COVID-19
Photo credit: Ellen M. Banner / The Seattle Times
This article first appeared on the Seattle Times website.
You have to stay outside if you want to see Emi Louise Jander. You have to stand at the front window and peer through the glass at the tiny girl while her mother, Tina, holds her. No cradling her for a spell. No breathing in her baby smell.
But that’s all right. That Emi is healthy and home is enough. The day before Emi was born, her mother, Tina Jander, tested positive for COVID-19. She was one of a handful of women who have delivered babies at Swedish Medical Center while carrying the virus, and the only one to deliver by C-section.
Jander, 34, a physician assistant, had no symptoms of the virus on the morning of May 3 when, as part of hospital protocol, she went to the Swedish COVID-19 testing drive-thru and was swabbed. That afternoon, she got the positive result. Her cesarean, already scheduled, was the next morning.