Parents who battled coronavirus finally meet their newborn twins 20 days after their birth
"It felt like I gave birth and they were just gone."
Imagine delivering your long-awaited twins and having them taken away from you for their protection while you battle a highly dangerous disease during a pandemic. It’s a horrifying idea, but one that is way too real for Michigan mum, Jennifer Laubach when she gave birth to twin sons, Mitchell and Maksim Laubach, on April 3.
After battling and beating COVID-19, Jennifer did not get to meet her newborn sons until 20 days later, on April 23, after both she and her husband Andre, who also beat COVID-19, were cleared by doctors to enter the NICU where their sons were being cared for at Troy Beaumont Hospital in Troy, Michigan.
Jennifer and Andre Laubach finally meet their newborn twin sons, 20 days after their birth once the couple had beaten COVID-19.
“It was very emotional because at that point it had been three weeks since their birth,” Laubach, 36, told Good Morning America.
“It felt like I gave birth and they were just gone.”
Jennifer, who works for an insurance company, explained that due to the fact that she was pregnant with twins, she had been quarantining from home way before stay-at-home orders were put into place, but it was too late.
Initially Jennifer attributed her symptoms – severe cough and shortness of breath – to her pregnancy, but when Andre, an attorney, developed the same symptoms the couple were tested for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
“It felt like I gave birth and they were just gone.”
The pair received their test results on April 2, just a few minutes after Jennifer – who was just 32 weeks into her pregnancy – felt her waters break.
“I kept saying, ‘It’s too early, it’s too early,'” the new mum recalled. “Andre called the hospital and while he was on the phone with the hospital I got the call from someone in our doctor’s office that he was positive. My test came back negative but it was a false negative.”
While the couple prepared to head to hospital, the simple task of packing a bag for his wife sent Andre, who has asthma and was still having severe COVID-19 symptoms, into a coughing fit so severe he could not talk and was having trouble breathing, according to Jennifer.
With Andre’s poor health, Jennifer was preparing to be the driver to get them to hospital, when she got a call from her doctor saying that Andre would not be allowed in the hospital because of his positive test result.
Incredibly, Jennifer called her brother to come stay with Andre and drove herself the 25 minutes to the hospital to give birth. What a woman!
WATCH: Parents who battled coronavirus finally meet their newborn twins 20 days after their birth. Continues after video …
“As I was leaving I was thinking am I ever going to see him again,” Jennifer said. “He was in really bad shape.”
Because of the COVID-19 risk, Jennifer, still panicked about Andre, had to wait to be attended to until an isolated room became available.
“My maternal instinct just kicked in and I didn’t want to cause undue stress on myself or the babies so I just tried to remain calm,” said LaJennifer. “I knew my brother was there checking on him and I knew he was taken care of if something were to happen.”
At 5:30 the next morning this incredible mum wnet into labour without her partner, and delivered her twin sons, Mitchell and Maksim.
“I was isolated again from my family and friends and couldn’t see my babies and I was going through some postpartum depression I’m sure,”
“She was tough, she was persistent and she did it,” said Dr. Deborah Mikula, Jennifer’s OBGYN who oversaw the delivery, which required several teams of doctors and nurses. “She stayed really positive through the whole thing and I think she should be so proud of how she handled it.”
Jennifer delivered her babies, complication-free, but she was not allowed to hold her newborn sons. The tiny brothers were immediately taken to a quarantine NICU unit because of the risk of COVID-19.
Jennifer, who later tested positive for COVID-19 after first testing negative, was discharged from the hospital two days after giving birth without her sons. She had to return to hospital quite quickly after developing postpartum preeclampsia where she remained for another four days.
“I was isolated again from my family and friends and couldn’t see my babies and I was going through some postpartum depression I’m sure,” she said. “My nurse stayed with me throughout the entire first two nights I was in the hospital. I didn’t have anyone else.”
She and Andre were only able to see their sons through video calls that were often blurry and interrupted by a poor connection.
Jennifer says it was a wonderful nurse who was really responsible for arranging their very first face-to-face meeting after 20 days.
“The nurse got on the phone on her day off and was really our advocate,” said Jennifer. “She didn’t have to do that and when she called to give me the news [that the Laubachs could visit the NICU] she was crying. This was someone I had never met before.”
Both baby boys have tested negative for coronavirus.
“I just want people to take this virus seriously and not take your loved ones for granted, that’s for sure,” said Jennifer, who added she still does not know how or where she got COVID-19. “My heart goes out to all the people who don’t have a happy ending.”