{"id":222571,"date":"2020-04-28T08:39:34","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T13:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=222571"},"modified":"2020-04-27T17:49:02","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T22:49:02","slug":"covid-19-mother-baby-reunited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/covid-19-mother-baby-reunited\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 kept them apart – but now mother and baby are finally reunited"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Iris Nolasco has finally been reunited with her newborn daughter. The two were separated amid Nolasco’s diagnosis with COVID-19, and subsequent emergency c-section, for 25 days.<\/p>\n

According to ABC News<\/a>, on March 15 Nolasco began experiencing body aches and headaches. Thirty weeks pregnant, she hoped that it was all in her head, and tried to ignore the symptoms. But then a cough developed — and worsened. She was given antibiotics for sinusitis and was tested for COVID-19. The test came back positive.<\/p>\n

Self-isolating at home from her two sons and her fianc\u00e9, Nolasco’s condition began to worsen, and she could hardly breathe, let alone speak. Doctors decided to perform an emergency C-section on March 27 to try and save both mother and child.<\/p>\n

“I just prayed to God to protect my baby,” she told ABC News.<\/p>\n

READ: Premature baby girl recovers from COVID-19: \u2018She\u2019s our rainbow in the storm\u2019<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nolasco feared death as she was put under anesthesia before the surgery, but remembers hearing her baby girl, who she named Isabella Michelle, crying as she was taken quickly away to the NICU. Nolasco didn’t get to hold her. Only able to speak with her fianc\u00e9 over the phone, she said he was still fearful she would die. “He was saying goodbye to me like, ‘I love you. I’m not ready to lose you.’ It’s just hard,” she said.<\/p>\n

As she began to recover from both the C-section and COVID-19, doctors installed a camera that allowed her to check in on her baby at any time. On April 2, she was released from the hospital, but it would still be weeks until she was able to meet Isabella. On Tuesday, that dream finally became a reality.<\/p>\n

Mother and daughter were reunited at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York with great celebration. Isabella was wheeled to her mother in a bassinet with the sign “Maimonides NICU Graduate.” Hospital staff clapped as Nolasco saw her baby for the first time.<\/p>\n