Isolated and afraid: How the pandemic is changing pregnancy

Jamie Chui has been a virtual prisoner in her Hong Kong home for most of her nine-month pregnancy.

Trapped intially by violent pro-democracy protests and tear gas, and then by the coronavirus -- she now faces giving birth alone, with her husband unlikely to see his child until days later.

Asia is facing a second wave of COVID-19 infections and as cases spiral globally with one million confirmed positive and half the planet on lockdown, women are having to give birth in unprecedented circumstances.

Hong Kong and China have imposed some of the world's strictest measures to prevent infections in maternity units: birthing partners are banned from labour units, delivery rooms and post-natal wards in public hospitals.

That has left many women struggling not only with normal pregnancy anxieties and infection fears, but also the new reality of hospital deliveries, at a time when experts warn resources are more stretched than ever.

"The most stressful part for me is that hospitals have suspended the visiting arrangements and accompanied labour," says Chui, adding: "I will need to fight alone." "I'm nervous, to be honest. But I don't know what else I could do." Hong Kong's protests began as Chui fell pregnant.

Fearful of the violence and tear gas might do to her unborn child, she stayed indoors. Now she is doing the same thing because of the coronavirus.

"I have been staying at home for almost my whole pregnancy," the 33-year-old photographer explains.

Banning labour companions goes against the World Health Organization's 'Safe Childbirth Checklist' recommendations that women should have a trusted person with them during the process.

A similar move was attempted by some hospitals in New York but governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order to ensure 'no woman would give birth alone', after a huge public outcry and 600,000-strong petition.

In China and Hong Kong, women are instead left having to choose between spending upwards of HKD 100,000 (US$10,000) for private hospital delivery, where partners are still allowed to attend, or going it alone in the public system.

"I have had to mentally and physically prepare to deliver without my husband's support," says 36-year-old Lidia In?s Cardoso Ribeiro, adding that she has written to the Hospital Authority to urge them to reconsider.

"I believe all women should have the choice to have a person they trust to empower and support them through labour," she explains.

Christina Kimont, a Canadian midwife and public health researcher, now in Macau, which operates similar restrictions, agrees the situation could be problematic.

"The human body cannot easily do what it is designed to do while in a state of stress," she says.

She warned that adding extra anxiety to people already worrying about their baby contracting the virus or exhausted medical teams, could make labour "longer, more difficult and likely to end up in unplanned surgical procedures."