Twenty-nine years ago to the day I was sitting in church in a small Cumbrian town. It was Maundy Thursday and my husband was leading the service. It was a bright spring day, just like today. I was 29-years-old and expecting our second child. Another twinge in my tummy made me shift in the wooden pew and wince. Could it be starting? I wondered. 

Some hours later we welcomed our beautiful daughter into the world in Barrow-in-Furness hospital and it wasn’t long before her brother and her grandparents arrived to seal that very special Easter weekend event.

Today I wished our grown-up daughter happy birthday via Whatsapp video. She is expecting her first child and the due date is tomorrow. I can’t believe my baby is having a baby! 

But the world our grandchild will be born into looks vastly different.

When our eldest son was born, it wasn’t the easiest birth and I was grateful for very personal care and visits from my midwife and sometimes a health visitor. Having a baby brings enormous change. We didn’t make it easy for ourselves, of course, as two weeks after his birth I drove across the country from Nottingham to Carlisle for his father’s ordination and within another couple of weeks we moved house for a new job and life in Cumbria.

But all this stress and change pales into insignificance beside what is happening today with the Coronavirus.

It’s a daunting time too for anyone to be giving birth and caring for a tiny new person.

Yesterday I heard that midwives will no longer visit new mums at home, as all home care and checks have been suspended. They really are on their own once they leave hospital. No neighbours or friends will be allowed to call by and family aren’t even allowed to visit. I am worried about how isolating this will feel.

Our daughter is a paediatrician. She should be well equipped to keep an eye on the development of her new baby, who we pray arrives safely very soon. She has a loving husband who will take care of her. But I know she will struggle with not sharing this special time with friends and family or enjoying the practical love and support of her community.

Apart from the awaited new arrival, the virus is a challenge for us as a family in many ways with special events in jeopardy and all of us facing hidden fears of what might happen next.

This morning I read an article from an Italian writer talking about what we will face in the coming weeks. Francesca Melandri wrote: “At some point, you will realise it’s tough. You will be afraid. … That boat in which you’ll be sailing in order to defeat the epidemic will not look the same to everyone nor is it actually the same for everyone: it never was.”

But there is one thing that is the same. And it was the same 29 years ago in Cumbria, when I burst into tears on arriving at the hospital – I had my own fears to conquer.

I knew then, and I know now, that these words from Psalm 46 are true:

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

When the world seems to be crumbling all we can do is remember we are standing on a rock and God is a the rock that can’t be shaken.