Michigan Mother Delivers Healthy Baby After Contracting Coronavirus
FENTON, Mich. (WJRT) -- Anxiety can run high for expecting moms worrying if their growing baby is healthy.
Colleen Ostwald of Fenton had to navigate the coronavirus pandemic during the later stages of her pregnancy and contracted the potentially deadly illness weeks before her due date.
Although considered a high risk pregnancy, it had been pretty smooth until about week 37 for Ostwald. That's when she started to feel signs of a possible illness.
"I woke up, I had a headache, but my allergies have been crazy ever sense being pregnant anyway, so I thought that this is just probably allergies anyway," Ostwald said. "I think it was like misting that day it's probably the rain."
That's what she told herself, never thinking it could be anything more serious, until the symptoms worsened.
"I would be freezing with uncontrollable shakes. Then I would go to just sweating uncontrollably," Ostwald said. "I had a lot of stomach cramping and then towards the end it got to be a really bad cough and then like the difficulty breathing. The worst that I got the more concerned I was for him."
After about two weeks, her doctor told her to go to an emergency room, but she didn't get the treatment she was expecting.
"I tried to get testing. They would not test me," Ostwald said.
A couple of days later she went to urgent care.
"They couldn't test me," Ostwald said. "They said you need to call your OB back. You need to get a doctor's order."
Pregnant, sick and exhausted, she eventually ended up at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor.
"As soon as I walked in the door, they immediately took me back to a room and treated me and tested me immediately," Ostwald said.
She was positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by coronavirus. A couple weeks later on April 8, she gave birth to her son Remington, who has twice tested negative for the virus.
Ostwald has a simple message for expecting moms during the coronavirus pandemic.
"Just don't let fear take over, don't let worry take over," she said. "If you happen to get the coronavirus, you can still deliver a healthy baby."
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