NYC Mom Finally Meets Son 12 Days After Birth Due to COVID-19 Coma

Coronavirus has affected the birth plans of pregnant women across the nation—including Yanira Soriano, from New York City, who finally got to meet her 12-day-old son.

Yara was admitted to the Southside Hospital in NYC earlier this month at 34 weeks pregnant because she was having trouble breathing. After receiving a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, her doctors put her into a medically-induced coma and placed her on a ventilator. She gave birth to her son, Walter, while in that coma on April 3 via c-section.

Soriano didn’t meet her baby until 12 days later on Wednesday, April 15. While she had been taken off the ventilator on Monday, April 13, she had to wait two days to be discharged from the hospital. It was only afterwards that she was able to hold her baby for the very first time.

“In most instances, you’re awake when you deliver the baby and you can bond with the baby right away,” Dr. Benjamin Schwartz of Southside Hospital told ABC 7 News. “But in this context, because the mom was so ill, she had to be put on a ventilator and put to sleep right before the baby was born….She was not awake when her baby was born and did not hear the baby cry or have any opportunity to meet him right after his birth.”

He continued, “It was an incredibly proud moment. It takes many, many people over many, many shifts to provide the level of care that this patient needed.”

While Walter has not tested positive for COVID-19, WPTV reports, his doctors will continue to monitor him over the course of the next few weeks through telehealth visits.

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