Pregnancy is always an exciting time for new parents, but it can also be stressful. There is so much that’s unknown, and so much to get ready. More than anything, though, parents just hope for a healthy baby.
What makes pregnancy extra stressful is when there’s any sort of complication, such as pre-term labor. That’s exactly what Bob and Shona Collins have been dealing with over the past few months.
Shona’s water broke at just 5 months into her pregnancy. Considering pregnancy is usually 9 months, 5 months was way too early. Shona was put on bed rest at home and told that her baby only had a 1% survival rate.
Thankfully, baby Forest seems to be in that 1%, but the journey hasn’t been easy for Bob and Shona. After 3 weeks at home, Shona was admitted to the hospital to continue her bed rest there.
Being admitted to the hospital and spending weeks on end there is never ideal, but due to coronavirus, being admitted to the hospital now is even more stressful than usual. Visitors are hardly ever allowed in the hospital right now, so patients have to spend their time in their hospital room without seeing their family or friends.
In Shona’s case, that meant that Bob was not allowed to go to the hospital with her. She was admitted to Health Adventist Medical Center Hinsdale on April 13th, and the couple has been apart ever since.
Like many of us during this time of quarantine, Shona and Bob used Facetime and Zoom to stay connected, but they missed actually seeing each other in person. That’s when Bob started visiting Shona at the hospital by sitting outside her window and holding up a sign. Shona made signs to show her husband through her hospital window too.
He has been visiting her every week, and sometimes he has been joined by family and friends.
Shona’s nurses even through her a baby shower while she was in the hospital. Bob wrote in a Facebook post that “Shona Facetimed me and I lost it. I think we were all crying.”
While the couple is not happy to be apart, we love how they are looking at the bright side and making the best of their situation. They are also very thankful for all the help and care the nurses at the hospital have been providing. Bob even called the nurses “angels.”
“I had a 20-year career in healthcare. Treating the whole person is critical. The body, the mind, the heart, and the soul. These nurses atAMITA Health Adventist Medical Center Hinsdaleare angels. Our guardian angels treating the whole of all three of us.
We could not be happier with the care and compassion we have been receiving. It makes this so much easier to know that this team is on our team.”
How have you been staying connected to family and friends when you can’t visit them in person?