She didn’t get to meet him until she was discharged.
A mum who gave birth to a baby boy whilst in a Covid-19 coma has no recollection of meeting her son for the first time via FaceTime.
28-year-old Sophie Byrne was in a coma when her baby son Joseph was delivered 11 weeks early by caesarean section at the Royal Liverpool Hospital.
The mum-of-three had been placed on a ventilator after contracting the virus, and spent nine weeks in hospital battling it.
Her family was told she may not survive the delivery because her condition had deteriorated so badly. Only the baby’s dad was allowed to come to the hospital to be at her side.
Little Joseph was born on August 26 in a healthy state despite being born 11 weeks premature.
After a brief stay in intensive care, he was moved to a neonatal ward while his mum continued to fight for her life on a ventilator.
When she came around, she had a long road to recovery ahead of her.
“They let me see Joseph for the first time in mid September through FaceTime,” Sophie told the Liverpool Echo. “But I was heavily sedated and can’t remember a thing about that day now.”
She didn’t get to hold her newborn son until she was discharged from hospital on October 4.
The mum had also contracted pneumonia as a result of Covid, and while she’s now recovering at home, she says she’s “still very weak” and not yet out of the woods.
“I had to learn to walk again because I had been in bed for so long,” she said. “And I had to learn to eat again after undergoing a tracheotomy. It’s been hard and there is a long road ahead.”
After the life-threatening ordeal she suffered, Sophie wants to raise awareness of the seriousness of Covid-19 and urges people to get vaccinated.
She said: “Covid nearly killed me and I had no underlying health conditions. I was not vaccinated but that was because I was pregnant.
“I am now due to be vaccinated soon and can’t wait. People need to take this seriously. I did not doubt Covid existed but did not fully appreciate how devastating it could be.”
The UK’s NHS advises pregnant people to get vaccinated with either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna jab as “they’ve been more widely used during pregnancy in other countries and have not caused any safety issues.”
On home soil, the HSE advises pregnant people to get vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech jab.
A recent report showed none of the pregnant women admitted to ICU with Covid-19 in Ireland were fully vaccinated.
