Stuck at home is one thing. Not being able to leave your compound is another. And being close to giving birth too? That’s the almost unimaginable situation in which a number of local women have recently found themselves in Nanjing’s Jiangning District.
On 28 March was smoothly delivered the 10th newborn since Jiangning Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital was established as the centralised medical treatment centre for locked-down residential communities in Jiangning.
Like many babies in China, the newborn was quickly given the nickname “Xiao Bao” (little baby). The baby’s parents are He Qiang, 27, from Wuhu in Anhui Province, and father, Zhou Ju, a 33-year-old Nanjinger. The two of them have run a local second-hand car business for many years and have settled in Jiangning’s Zhong Hong Yun Residential Community.
On 19 March, Zhou received notice that their community was one of those going into lockdown. His wife’s first question was quite naturally, how can I go to the hospital to give birth?
They need not wait long for their answer. The next morning they were contacted by a community grid manager. He Qiang’s condition had been noted, together with her due date and previous pregnancy check ups, reported Nanjing Daily.
She was not alone. Among all the locked down communities in Jiangning, there were a total of 520 pregnant women, of which 20 were due in March.
Fast forward to 03:30 on 26 March, when He Qiang was awakened by labour pains. Her husband immediately alerted the grid manager to his wife’s breaking waters. Very soon they were waiting for the pregnant couple at their community gate with four staff and a shuttle bus. By 05:00, He Qiang had arrived in the Hospital’s maternity ward.
There, the Hospital’s Obstetric Director, Li Chunxia, later told media that since confirming there could potentially be 20 women delivering babies in March, the department established files for each, recording in detail their physical condition and that of the foetus, while formulating delivery plans for every eventuality. “This is a long-established plan”, Li said.
With preparations made, He Qiang was rolled into the operating theatre at 10:00. Waiting for her were five doctors, including Chief Surgeon, Zhu Rongrong.
During the operation, doctors need not only wear regular surgical clothing, but also a layer of protective clothes, two pairs of gloves and protective glasses. “In the context of epidemic prevention and control, it is more difficult for doctors to perform surgery; they consume more physical energy. A birth by cesarean section, which used to take 20 minutes to half an hour, now takes 40 minutes”, Zhu said.
At 11:05, a loud cry rang through the operating room. With a weight of 4.05 kilograms, Xiao Bao had been born. The coordinated and combined effort by the hospital, residential community and security guards, among many others, had brought a lockdown baby into this world.