Mother who gave birth in isolation ward still hasn't met baby

A Cameroonian mother who gave birth after testing positive for coronavirus says she is yet to meet her daughter.

Marie Youri said after her daughter, Foraya, was born, doctors told her she couldn’t see her.

Doctors confirmed to the BBC that they rushed the child to the neonatal ward to avoid her catching the coronavirus.

Miss Youri said medical staff had reassured her; “I felt very alone. I was really surprised and I was crying. The doctors supported me, they told me it would be all right.”

The 19-year-old is said to be doing well with oxygen treatment in an isolation ward in Cameroon's capital, Yaoundé and will be tested again in 10 days time to see if she is positive or negative for the virus.

The baby was born prematurely weighing 2.1kg (4.6lb) and is in the neonatal unit.

Dr Kemme Kemme Marileine, who was part of the team who helped deliver Foraya, said that the baby is doing very well and has not displayed any coronavirus symptoms.

“It’s true that we did a further investigation to find out if there is a chance that the virus could have entered the baby, but based on the literature there is no mother-to-child infection.

“Nowadays the baby is fine. She’s added 2kg and is a healthy baby even though she was born earlier than the term. But she’s very fine. So, no temperature, no signs that could mean its Covid-19 infection.”

Dr Marileine also said that even though Marie was in her own isolation room, the birth was “one of the scariest things” she’d encountered since the pandemic outbreak.

“Because I was thinking about that young lady, I was thinking about her having her very first pregnancy, and I was like I want this baby to be alive, so I was very, very emotional with that special case.

“I was very happy that everything went very good. That was a big responsibility and a big challenge for me to manage the situation to make sure everything is ok. Our big, big fear was to lose the baby, so it was a very, very big challenge for us.”

The West African country has confirmed 677 coronavirus cases and nine deaths to date.