My pregnancy went very well, overall. I was lucky enough to feel physically well, so the nine months flew by without me even noticing.

Alicia Andrés He remembers the "tension" and "fear" that were experienced in the hospital. On March 12, 2020, she gave birth to her first child, Liam. A nurse entered the room in tears and told her and her partner that no one was to touch the baby and that they should hurry home. Alicia's parents had driven from Málaga, where they live, to meet their first grandchild. The next day, they were retracing their steps to return before the roads were closed. On March 14, 2020, a state of emergency was declared due to the COVID pandemic. Gemma was separated from her daughter She was only born because she tested positive for COVID. I could only pick her up to breastfeed her. According to the restrictive protocol that was then in place and later relaxed, babies had to be separated from COVID-positive mothers, skin-to-skin contact was not allowed, they were forced to maintain a distance of two meters between the bed and the crib, and the umbilical cord was cut early. Laura gave birth alone, was strapped down during the C-section, was not allowed to hold her daughter, and found no help with the difficult breastfeeding process.