Nosipho Nkantini, a nurse in South Africa suffering from Covid-19, was unconscious and on a ventilator when she gave birth to a baby boy in December.
Nkantini was in a state of despair when she woke from her coma, believing her baby had died.
“When the staff members told me ‘No, the child is in ICU and doing well’… I thought ‘Okay I am now alright’…
“Apart from the fact that I was still very weak recovering from Covid-19, I previously lost a baby who was delivered at 35 weeks, so I was extremely traumatised imagining this happening again.”
After struggling to breathe, Nkantini tested positive for Coronavirus. Arriving in hospital, she lost consciousness and was placed on a ventilator.
“From then I can’t remember anything until I woke up days later, when I was told I had suffered complications and my baby had been delivered by emergency C-section”, she recalled.
Having completed her self-isolation period and recovered from the virus, Nkantini was finally reunited with her son on 4 January.
“When they showed me my baby, I was crying because I was so happy. I couldn’t believe it. He is alive.”
The mother, who describes her son as a “miracle”, has named him Oyena, meaning “the one chosen by God”.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “This is a wonderful story, though the trauma that this mother went through must have been intense.
“We should not underestimate the sense of separation that she must have felt when for some time she could not even see her newborn son.
“What matters, of course, is that both the mother and the baby are now well. This story shows how we should not take life for granted. It is a precious and wondrous thing.”
Similar stories
Mother survives COVID-19 coma after giving birth to premature baby girl
Premature baby who survived Covid is “a powerful witness to life” says SPUC