Coronavirus Covid-19: First-time dad watches his baby's delivery via Zoom

Stephanie was induced on March 27 and Marty watched on a laptop screen as his son came into the world. Photo / Twitter

After struggling through four rounds of IVF, a new dad has been forced to watch the birth of his first child via Zoom, due to lockdown restrictions.

In the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, Stephanie Gandelman, 34, from New Jersey had to deliver their baby alone. Her husband Marty, 34, watched via a Zoom call from their couch at home.

The couple, who both struggle with fertility issues had gone through four rounds of IVF and suffered three miscarriages before the arrival of their son Jake.

Stephanie told The Sun she has been in quarantine since two weeks before her due date and with social distancing restrictions in place, was also forced to attend her final doctors appointments and ultrasounds alone.

Four days before she was set to be induced, the couple were told by their doctor that unfortunately spouses were not permitted to attend labour, delivery or post-partum.

While Marty admits he was "really sad" about the missing the birth of his first child, Stephanie told The Sun that they were just focused on bringing a healthy baby into the world.

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Our lil family has been home for a week now and we have settled in to our newborn-quarantine-life consisting of changing diapers, feeding baby Jake, sleeping, chilling, and then doing it all again, and again, and again. It’s kinda fun. It’s kinda like Groundhogs day. It’s kinda like what having a newborn is like whether there’s a global pandemic or not. That is, except for the fact that in the real world Jake has a huge family. In the Corona world, however, we are a family of 3. One could argue that video chat is the 4th member of our family. Maybe it’s because everyone is home quarantining themselves, or maybe it’s just because Jake is so super loved, but my Jake, may in fact, be the most connected 1 week old this world has ever seen. On any given day, he gets serenaded by Aunt Mollie and her Eukalalee. He plays Zoom family game night. He loves a good girl hang with mommy’s friends. He has video check ups with Dr. Grandpa and Dr Auntie Devo. And he even had 200+ of his nearest and dearest attend his virtual Bris. I know...ridic. If we were not living in the time of Corona, we would have circumcised our boy at a Bris 8 days after he was born. Instead, for obvious reasons, we had him circumcised in the hospital. This left the question of what about The Bris? For those who don’t know, a Bris is a ceremony performed on the 8th day of a baby boy’s life, entering him into Judaism. We decided to do a Bris via Zoom. I was hesitant at first, but I also didn’t want my boy to miss out on this life milestone. The outcome was greater than I could have ever imagined. My husband welcomed everyone and did an amazing job of capturing exactly what we were feeling. “It’s hard to put into words what it’s like having a baby during the coronavirus pandemic.” He said “But -- it has really enabled us to put this whole thing into perspective. As many of you know, Steph delivered Baby G without me there. He has not yet met his grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins or any of you. He is however -- here. He is healthy. And, he is everything we’ve been wishing for. Link in bio for full article ✨@herviewfromhome ✨

A post shared by Stephanie Gandelman (@schtoofa) on Apr 12, 2020 at 8:10am PDT

"In all honesty as long as my baby was safe that was all I kept thinking about, of course it saddened me that he wasn't going to be there but it wasn't the end of the world."

"It wasn't the perfect labour but we made it work. It feels perfect now to be home as a little family."

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website