COVID-19 could verily be the most unexpected global issue of the past decade (definitely of 2020!) No one could have prepared for the entire world entering a quarantine, or as people come to have called it: a lockdown. But life has constantly proven to be able to surprise even after it has surprised as many mothers and mothers-to-be are now discovering.
PedTalk: Will My Child Fall Behind in School Because of the Pandemic?
The second installment of Mommy Mundo’s PedTalk series, in coordination with Sanofi Pasteur and Huggies, aired on Facebook Live on May 30, 2020. The topic was: Will My Child Fall Behind in School Because of the Pandemic. Host, Camille Prats Yambao, and guest speaker, Dra. Jocelyn A. Eusebio, an expert on developmental concerns took the over 14,000 viewers through physical, educational, psychological, and emotional challenges children might be facing at this time.
Surviving COVID: Moms Who Fought & Won
Like many other grave ailments, the novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, is a serious threat whose gravity is not felt until it hits home. It is very different to know the virus as a statistic on television or as the reason behind social restrictions and to know the virus as the silent thief that takes a relative or the reason why you couldn’t be there in their final moments. For three Mommy Mundo moms, the virus made itself known as closely as possible–as the reason why they were forced into isolation, into hospitals, and into the dreadful anxiety that leaves one wondering if they would be one of the ones to survive.
The Moms of COVID
The motherhood journey has its fair share of ups and downs, but for those who delivered during the COVID-19 quarantine, fears, worries, and motherhood realisations were amplified.
Mom Spotlight: Gellina Suderio, MD.
Overcoming fears is a challenge every person faces at least once in their lifetimes. For many of the frontliners of the Novel CoronaVirus, or COVID-19, it is a daily occurrence. Everyday, doctors are waking up with fear–fear for themselves, fear for their patients, fear for their families, fear for the world–and everyday they overcome those fears and get to work.
Mom Spotlight: Abigail Zaraspe, MD.
In the fight against COVID-19, however, frontliners find that seeking that balance is harder than ever because their work now has direct–and potentially dire–consequences to their life.
Despite the seriousness of this, however, Dr. Abigail Zaraspe, who practices Internal Medicine-Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine at the Makati Medical Center, manages to keep things light.
Mom Spotlight: Karen Lamorena-Realo, MD.
A “frontliner” in the fight against Coronavirus, or COVID-19, Doc Karen made the decision to send her daughter to her family’s province to go and live with her parents and grandparents while she stayed in Manila with her husband to fulfill her duty as a medical professional.
Mom Spotlight: Cricket Manotok-Santiago, MD.
It’s experiences like these that she knows have changed her forever. Manotok-Santiago discovered her ability to be truly brave, to defy her fears and fight a silent and invisible opponent. It was in being a frontliner that she realised how much she loves her job, and rediscovered her purpose and responsibility as a doctor and a mother.
