‘Hope and inspiration’: COVID-19 survivor gives birth to 3-kg baby girl

Doctors and nurses are greatly overjoyed by the birth of a healthy baby girl whose mother, a nurse who used to work in the Middle East, earlier survived the COVID-19 infection. Photo from Governor Nancy Catamco’s Facebook

KIDAPAWAN CITY—The city’s first COVID-19 survivor gave birth to a healthy girl at the Cotabato Provincial Hospital on Tuesday (July 7), cheering up overworked health workers and bringing hope and joy in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is hope and inspiration,” said the governor of Cotabato, Nancy Catamco.

The governor sent flowers and gifts to the woman and her baby. If it were not for protocol, she said she would have personally visited the baby and carried her in her arms.

The childbirth came more than two months after the mother, a 29-year old private nurse who tested positive for SARS Cov2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, was discharged from a quarantine facility following her recovery.

Her baby weighed 3 kg at birth.

The nurse used to work in a hospital in the Middle East. She and her husband, also an overseas worker, came home in March for her to deliver her baby in the Philippines.

When her husband returned to his work abroad, he tested positive for coronavirus.

This prompted the nurse to have herself tested, too, and she was found positive. She, however, did not show any symptoms and stayed healthy until her discharge, when she tested negative for coronavirus.

Health officials have requested that the mother and the child be kept anonymous to protect their privacy. The nurse was elated as a team of doctors and health workers paid her a visit.

Dr. Alex Cabrera, Cotabato provincial hospital chief, said the case was special because the mother was a COVID-19 survivor.

Upon orders of the governor, Cabrera said health workers had been in constant contact with the woman and baby and so had the doctor who attended to the woman’s prenatal needs since her release from quarantine.

The nurse said she appreciated everything that the provincial government had done for her and “all those who prayed for my recovery.”

Dr. Neil Humprey Laquihon, COVID-19 provincial medical coordinator, said both baby and the mother had been tested for coronavirus according to protocol.

“I thank God and I thank all the people who supported me,” said the new mom.

Cotabato province has a total of 10 COVID-19 cases with seven recoveries.

Its first COVID-19 fatality was an 84-year-old man who had been confined at the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City.

TSB