For those of us who were sent away to maternity homes or to stay with strangers to give birth alone, this time of isolation because of Covid 19 might be, either consciously or unconsciously, triggering intensely painful memories. Initial news stories focused on the horror of people having to die alone. I found my heart breaking, as I imagined the utter loneliness they must have felt. Then the media began talking about women having to give birth alone without their partners or family with them, and that’s when I couldn’t get rid of the flashbacks to when I gave birth forsaken and surrounded by strangers. What opened me up to remembering wasn’t the news stories themselves, but the compassion w
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