Born prematurely at just 1.5kg, baby Peyton was diagnosed with Covid-19 at just three weeks old.
Her arrival on 26 March – eight weeks before her due date – defied all of the family’s planning.
Despite feeling healthy, Tracy was told she may have pre-eclampsia during a routine appointment and was sent straight to Wishaw General Hospital in Lanarkshire, UK.
After those first weeks, during which Peyton enjoyed a bath in the ward, she began to show the slightest of symptoms – a sniffle and a few coughs, almost undetectable.
“It was the first time I’d seen my baby cry tears, I held her, I was crying and we were just trying to get each other through the situation”. Tracy Maguire remembers the moment she saw doctors insert a swab into her three-week-old baby’s nose to test for corona-virus. The new mother says it is one of the “worst things” she has seen.
“They said ‘she’s fine, don’t panic – but she has tested positive for coronavirus’, I think the doctor was trying to keep me calm but I was sobbing. As much as she was fine I thought at what point was she with the virus? How is she fighting against it when she’s so wee? It was just the unknown,” Tracy recollects
Peyton was given steroids to help strengthen her lungs and received “amazing” care from neonatal nurses in the days that followed her diagnosis.
However, after recovering from her Caesarean section, Tracy was told she would have to go home and isolate for 14 days away from her baby.
“I was pleading on the phone with the doctor saying I don’t want to be away from her. As much as everyone was looking after her, I’m her mum. Even if it was the cold, I’d want to be there with her.”
Doctors relented and allowed Tracy to stay. As days passed, the number of deaths in Scotland caused by the virus continued to increase – but Peyton recovered.
Now home and settling into a routine, Tracy and family have praised the doctors and nurses at Wishaw General who guided them through a remarkable and daunting birth.