A mum who gave birth while she had coronavirus couldn’t hold her newborn baby for 25 days.
Baby Lisa was born on March 15 but her mother, Gloria Zara Sigismondi, had to stay in hospital in Cueno, Northern Italy as she had tested positive for the virus at the end of her pregnancy.
Lisa went home to Dogliani with the rest of the family, her father, Alin and her older sister, Olivia, while Gloria, 34, was ill in hospital.
It wasn’t until 25 days after giving birth to Lisa that Gloria could finally hug her new baby.
“It was a tough 25 days but now the nightmare is over,” Gloria told La Repubblica.
“Only yesterday I took her in my arms, I was so afraid that she could get sick but she is negative.”
It all began when Gloria’s 80-year-old grandmother, who is still unwell, was hospitalised.
Gloria also developed a fever and tests confirmed she had coronavirus.
She said: “It was terrible, I was sick, I wasn’t breathing.”
At first Gloria went to hospital in Alba but then she was moved to Cueno. She was very ill for about six days before she began to feel better, when it became harder to be apart from her family and new baby.
She said she spoke to her family every day on video calls, and her older daughter Olivia had started to give her kisses through the screen. Gloria said not being able to hug her daughter was “excruciating”.
Gloria’s whole community prayed that mum and baby would be ok, and it was mayor Ugo Arnulfo who shared the good news with everyone.
Gloria was eventually discharged when she had fully recovered and was finally able to hold baby Lisa and see her family.
Luckily Alin and Olivia had also been tested for the virus and both tests had come back negative.
Gloria returned home to Dogliani, where she remains in quarantine but can at least now be with her loved ones.
