A new father has opened up about the experience of watching the birth of his first child on Zoom, due to social distancing guidelines that kept him from his wife’s hospital bed.

On 27 March, Marty Gandelman, 34, from New Jersey, watched from his couch at home as his wife Stephanie gave birth to the couple’s son, Jake.

According to the couple, who spoke to Metro, Stephanie was scheduled to be induced on 27 March, a week before her initial due date of 3 April. However, four days before, on 23 March, Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City banned spouses from being present in delivery rooms in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus.

After learning of the hospital’s decision, Marty says he was “very, very upset at first”, but he and Stephanie knew as soon as the option of a virtual delivery was presented that they wanted to do it.

And, although Marty said it was “tough” not being with his wife in person and not being able to kiss his son, watching the birth via Zoom “did make it feel like I was in the room with them”.

What made the experience easier, according to Marty, was being able to see how many doctors were helping his wife through her labour.

“When I saw how many doctors were there on Zoom I knew she was safe, which helped,” he said. “When I saw that mum and baby were both ok I was over the moon and to be honest, being able to watch did make it feel like I was in the room with them.”

“It was a shame I couldn’t be there to hold Steph’s hand but under the circumstances it worked out perfectly well,” the new dad continued, adding that it was “such a great feeling” when he picked Jake and Stephanie up from the hospital the day after the birth.

According to Marty, once he’d picked up his family, they immediately drove home to “isolate away from everything”.

Stephanie also says that although it wasn’t the “perfect labour”, they made it work.

As for how she felt during the delivery without her husband by her side, the jewellery boutique owner says she “just thought of the camera as Marty, rather than a camera”.

“ It didn’t really change anything for me and it was comforting to know he was there.”

According to Mount Sinai, the decision to keep spouses and other visitors from delivery rooms in an effort to minimise the risk of spreading coronavirus was one that was not “made lightly”.

“We do not take this decision lightly, but these are unprecedented times that require unprecedented steps to protect our patients, their families and their new babies,” Lucia Lee, a spokeswoman for the hospital said in a statement to The New York Times.

In addition to barring visitors, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also suggested that hospitals temporarily separate newborns from mothers who are positive for Covid-19.

According to the latest figures, there have been 92,387 confirmed cases of coronavirus in New Jersey, while New York has had 139,385 cases.

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